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FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

AND 

RECOLLECTIONS OF ROBERT COLLEGE 



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FIFTY YEARS 
IN CONSTANTINOPLE 



AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 
ROBERT COLLEGE 

BY 

GEORGE WASHBURN, D. D., LL.D. 

Commander of the Princely Order of St. Alexander (Bulgaria) 
Grand Officer of the National Order of Civil Merit (Bulgaria) 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

1909 



COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY GEORGE WASHBURN 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

Published October iqoq 



248693 



09 



PREFACE 



This book has been written at the request of 
many friends of Robert College. It embodies a 
history of the College from its foundation to the 
close of its fortieth year, 1903. I have chosen to 
make it a record of personal recollections, because 
this seemed to be the only way in which I could 
write freely of events and personalities as they ap- 
peared to me at the time, without compromising 
the present administration of the College or mak- 
ing it responsible in any way for my opinions or 
actions. 

It has been my purpose to make it as far as pos- 
sible a history of the College, but the picture of a 
college in Constantinople during these years could 
not be drawn without a background of incidents, 
personalities and events, such as would have no 
place in the story of a college in America. On the 
other hand, it did not seem wise to make the back- 
ground more attractive than the picture, or even 
to set the latter in the frame of a detailed history 
of the Turkish Empire. The Introduction is a re- 
view of the events of the last fifty years which have 
led to the recent revolution in Constantinople. 



CONTENTS 



Introduction 

CHAPTER I 

The Founding of Robert College 

Mr. Robert interested in founding a College in Constantinople — The 
Messrs. Dwight — Dr. Hamlin invited to join Mr. Robert — Purchase 
of a site — The Trustees of the College incorporated in New York — 
Opposition of the Turkish government — Mr. Morgan and Admiral 
Farragut have a part in securing an Imperial Charter 

CHAPTER II 

The Opening of the College at Bebec 

Name of the College — Religious status — Language — Course of 
study — Resignation of the two professors — Cholera epidemic — New 
tutors — Beneficiaries — Syrian Protestant College founded at Beirut — 
Lycee of Galata Serai — Erection of building at Hissar — Dr. Hamlin 
and Mr. Robert 

CHAPTER III 

Last Two Years at Bebec. 1869-1871 

Dr. Hamlin devoted to building at Hissar — The Bulgarians in the 
College — Visit of Professors Park, Smith, and Hitchcock — Self- 
suppoit — Visit of Mr. and Mrs. Robert — Visit of General Sheridan 

— Typhoid epidemic — Removal of the College to Roumeli Hissar . . 

CHAPTER IV 

Ninth College Year. 1871-1872 

Dr. Hamlin leaves for America — The fall of French influence in Turkey 

— Cholera epidemic — Purchase of additional land — Achmet Vefik 
Pasha — Visits of Professor North, General Sherman, and Lieutenant 
Grant — Corporal punishment — I am appointed Director of the College 
— Failure of Dr. Hamlin to raise money in America — Geological work 

vii 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER V 

Development of the College. 1872-1873 

Enlargement of the College — Appointment of Dr. Long and Mr. Gros- 
venor as professors and Mr. Djedjizian as adjunct professor — A tem- 
porary study hall built — Racial conflict — Our Turkish neighbors — 
Cricket matches with English naval officers — Visit of Mr. Bancroft the 
historian — Why no senior class 64 

CHAPTER VI 

Religious Questions. 1873-1874 

Religious work of the College — Question raised by the Armenians — 
Correspondence on the subject — Attacks on the College in the news- 
papers — Great snow-storm — New apparatus . 76 

CHAPTER VII 
Visit of Mr. Robert. 1874-1875 



Political excitement — I visit Bulgaria 
Robert spends six weeks at the College 
American Minister — Course of study - 



— Seditious movements — Mr. 

— Horace Maynard appointed 

— Excess of linguistic work . . 89 



CHAPTER VIII 

Political Crisis in Turkey. 1875-1876 

How the crisis affected the College — Massacre of Christians in Bul- 
garia — Deposition and death of Abd-ul-Aziz — Deposition of Murad 
— Abd-ul-Hamid Sultan — War with Servia and Montenegro — How 
the Bulgarian massacres were made known to the world — Midhat 
Pasha and Sir Henry Elliot — Visit of Dr. Coe — Arrival of American 
war-ships 100 

CHAPTER IX 

The Russo-Turkish War. 1876-1877 

The European Conference — Lord Salisbury — The first Turkish Par- 
liament—War with Russia — The "Vandalia" — Fall of Midhat 
Pasha — Sir Henry Layard — Question of closing the College — The 

Greek Department 115 

viii 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER X 

The Russians at San Stefano. 1877-1878 

Mr. Panaretoff appointed professor — The Russians at San Stefano — 
General Skobeleff — The English fleet at Constantinople — The treaty 
of San Stefano — The treaty of Berlin — Dr. Long acting President of 
the College — Dr. Hamlin at Bangor 127 



CHAPTER XI 

Me. Robert's Death. 1878-1879 

What he left to the College — I am appointed President — Mr. van 
Millingen appointed professor — First catalogue of the College — Rt. 
Hon. W. E. Forster and Matthew Arnold — An attempt to raise money 
in America for an Armenian University in Constantinople — Bulgaria 
adopts a Constitution and chooses a Prince 137 



CHAPTER XII 

After the War. 1879-1880 

Trip around the Black Sea in U. S. Corvette "Wyoming" — Inner life 
of the College — Our relations with Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia — 
Special mission of Mr. Goshen — Insecurity in Constantinople — Mur- 
der of the College steward — Dr. Hamlin invited to return to Con- 
stantinople 149 



CHAPTER Xin 

Two Years in America. 1880-1882 

Political situation in Turkey and Bulgaria — Prince Alexander — 
Commencement exercises — My work in America 158 



CHAPTER XIV 

The College at the End of Twenty Years. 1882-1884 

Mr. Bryce — Lord Granville and the Egyptian question — General 
Lew Wallace and his relation to the same question — Lord Dufferin — 
"The Teaching of the Apostles" — Russia and Bulgaria — Condition 

of the College — Professor Eliou 168 

ix 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XV 

The Great Crisis in Bulgaria. 1884-1886 

Dr. Long visits America — Mrs. Washburn and I spend two months in 
Bulgaria — The Philippopolis revolution — Edwin Pears — Sir William 
White and Mr. Nelidoff — Sir Edward Thornton, British Ambassador 

— Samuel S. Cox, American Minister 179 

CHAPTER XVI 

The Overthrow of Prince Alexander. 1886-1888 

Russia secures the kidnapping and dethronement of Prince Alexander — 
Mr. Stambouloff — Prince Ferdinand — Enlargement of the College — 
Visit of Rev. Dr. Arthur Brooks — Mr. Oscar Straus, American Minister 

— Visit of Mr. and Mrs. John S. Kennedy and Mr. Walter of The Lon- 
don Times — Founder's Day 189 

CHAPTER XVII 

Armenian and Bulgarian Troubles. 1888-1890 

Appointment of Professor Anderson — Armenian troubles — Russian 
intrigues in Bulgaria — New buildings projected — Professor Grosve- 
nor resigns — Demoralizing influence of political agitations . . . .199 

CHAPTER XVIII 

Another Two Years in America. 1889-1891 

Raising money for new buildings — Mr. Stead on Robert College — 
Winter in Florida — Mr. Blaine and a treaty with Turkey — Meeting o£ 
the American Board at Minneapolis — Various experiences in soliciting 
money 208 

CHAPTER XIX 

Improvements in the College. 1890-1892 

Kennedy Lodge erected for President's house — The Censorship — Mr. 
Chamberlain — Death of Sir William White — Sir Philip Currie, 
British Ambassador — Young Men's Christian Association — Parlia- 
ment of Religions — Question of elective courses — Completion of new 
Science Hall — Mr. Ormiston appointed professor . . , . . . .217 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XX 

Trying Times in Turkey. 1892-1894 

A. W. Terrell, of Texas, American Minister — The Grand Vizier on 
Robert College — Death of wife of Professor van Millingen — Im- 
provement of courses of study — Parliament of Religions at Chicago — 
Serious earthquake at Constantinople — Miss Hart appointed matron . 226 



CHAPTER XXI 

Reorganization of the Board of Trustees. 1894-1896 

Massacres of Armenians — The first Constantinople massacre — What 
England failed to do — Visit of Prince Ferdinand and of Bishop Potter 
— Assassination of a Greek student — Beneficiaries 235 



CHAPTER XXII 

The Great Constantinople Massacre. 1896-1897 

Anxiety at the College — Turkish troops come at midnight — Sir 
Michael Herbert — Winter in Egypt — War with Greece — The Powers 
occupy Crete 245 



CHAPTER XXIII 

Further Development of the College. 1897-1899 

The new Board of Trustees take measures to enlarge the College — 
Miss Stokes and Theodorus Hall — Legacies — President Angell, 
American Minister — Sir Nicholas O'Conor — The Spanish war — 
Athletic Club — Water supply — Lord Rosebery — Sir William Ram- 
say on Robert College 254 



CHAPTER XXIV 

Death of Dr. Hamlin. 1899-1901 

Important action by Trustees — Missionary Conference at New York — ■ 
Mr. Lybyer appointed professor — Sudden death of Dr. Hamlin — 
Bulgaria at Paris Exhibition — Mr. Lloyd Griscom, American Charge 

d'Affaires — Letters of the Greek Patriarch 264 

xi 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XXV 

New Professors and New Buildings. 1901-1902 

Death of Dr. Long — Macedonia — Capture of Miss Stone — Assassi- 
nation of President McKinley — Two hundred and fifty American visit- 
ors — Appointment of Mr. W. S. Murray, Mr. G. S. Murray, Dr. C. W. 
Ottley, and Dr. George L. Manning as professors — Turkish and Ger- 
man departments — Theodorus Hail occupied ........ 275 

CHAPTER XXVI 

My Resignation of the Presidency. 1902-1903 

President Roosevelt and Secretary Hay — Mr. Leishman settles impor- 
tant questions with the Turkish Government — Troubles in Macedonia 
— The Dodge Gymnasium and professors' houses — Visit of Dr. Coe — 
Gifts to the College — My resignation and the appointment of Rev. 



C. F. Gates, D. D., LL. D., as President 284 

CHAPTER XXVII 
The Work of Forty Years. 1863-1903 293 

APPENDIX 

A. Number and Nationality of Students and Graduates each year . 305 

B. Receipts from Students, and Expenses at Constantinople, each year 307 

C. The Faculty of the College, forty-fifth year, 1907-1908 .... 308 

D. Former Members of the Faculty 309 

E. Former American Tutors 309 

F. Mr. Robert's Requirements for Tutors 311 

G. Summary of the Report of the Treasurer of Robert College for 1909 312 

Index 313 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Christopher R. Robert Frontispiece 

Cyrus Hamlin . ...... 30 

George Washburn 58 

Hamlin Hall in 1873 72 

Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz 104 

Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid 116 

Albert L. Long 158 

Prince Alexander of Bulgaria 184 

King Ferdinand op Bulgaria 240 

Panorama of Robert College 294 



Graduates and their Wives, Sofia, 1904 . . . 300 



INTRODUCTION 



Constantinople has long been the queen city 
of Europe. It has been an imperial city for sixteen 
hundred years; once the chief city of Christendom, 
the centre of Christian missions, but since 1453 the 
capital of the Turkish Empire and of the Moham- 
medan world ; for centuries the one defense of 
Europe against the advance of the Moslem hordes 
of Arabia ; for three centuries the terror of the 
Christian world ; during the last century the chief 
battle-ground of European diplomacy over the East- 
ern Question. 

When I first knew it, in 1856, it was no longer 
the city of Suleiman the Magnificent, or of Mah- 
moud II, the great reformer, who first undertook 
to check the progress of decay and save the empire 
by introducing something of European civilization. 
His son, Abd-ul-Medjid, owed his throne to the 
intervention of the European powers, and they 
used their influence, under the inspiration and di- 
rection of Lord Stratford, the English ambassador, 
to europeanize the government still further. This 
period of reform under outside influence ended with 
the Crimean War, and the treaty of Paris in 1856, 
when Turkey was formally recognized as one of 
the family of European States and her integrity 
guaranteed by treaty. Great changes had taken 
place in the empire. It had been consolidated and 
the government centralized. Much that was pictur- 

XV 



INTRODUCTION 

esque in Constantinople in the costumes of the 
people had disappeared; the Janissaries had been 
massacred; the turban had given place to the red 
fez ; but, after all, it was an Asiatic and not a Euro- 
pean city. The Turk himself was unchanged. The 
Sultan was an irresponsible autocrat, as his ances- 
tors had always been. The Turks generally were 
as ignorant and uncivilized as when they came 
from Central Asia in the thirteenth century. There 
were schools of theology, but otherwise education 
was unknown. The highest officials were often 
unable to read or write their own language. Still, 
there were great men among them, and one could 
not meet the humblest Turk without realizing that 
he belonged to the ruling race. 

For a few years after the Crimean War, Constan- 
tinople probably enjoyed more freedom than ever 
before, and more than most of the capitals of Eu- 
rope at that time. The government was weak, but 
feared nothing from the people, and left them very 
much to themselves. As the people of Constanti- 
nople were theoretically the guests of the Sultan, 
there was no conscription for the army and very 
few taxes of any kind. There was but little crime 
among the natives, and the police did not interfere 
with their private life. There was great freedom 
of speech, anything might be discussed in the ba- 
zaars or the coffee-shops, and as the Turks had 
not begun to read newspapers, there were no laws 
to limit the freedom of the press. There are no 
class distinctions among the Turks. Every Turk 
belongs to the ruling class and may aspire to the 
highest offices in the government. There was no- 

xvi 



INTRODUCTION 

thing to interfere with their individual liberty so 
long as they observed the conventionalities of their 
Faith. 

There was a restfulness in life in Constantinople 
in those days which was refreshing to an Ameri- 
can. No Turk was ever in a hurry. Time was of 
no account. If a Turk moved, it was with deliber- 
ation and dignity. If he smoked, it was a tchibouk 
or a nargileh, and it was the business of the hour. 
No modern improvements had come to disturb the 
peace of the city and complicate the simple life 
of the people. A few small steamers had begun to 
ply on the Bosphorus, but it was still picturesque 
with thousands of graceful caiques and hundreds 
of sailing craft. I remember one day when more 
than a thousand ships passed up the Bosphorus. I 
counted more than three hundred in sight at once, 
all under full sail. 

All this has passed away. The Constantinople 
of fifty years ago will never be seen again. It is 
still an Asiatic city, still wonderfully beautiful, 
still the place of all others where I would choose 
to live, so long as I could enjoy the exceptional 
privileges of ex-territoriality secured to foreigners 
by the capitulations. For the subjects of the Sultan, 
the easy-going, happy-go-lucky government of fifty 
years ago was an era of relative liberty and comfort, 
which they have since learned to regret. 

But it was in those days that a few young Turks 
first woke up to a sense of their ignorance and 
the need of education. They founded a society 
and started a periodical to promote the progress of 
knowledge among their people. They used to come 

xvii 



INTRODUCTION 

to the American missionaries for aid and counsel. 
It was a new thing for the Turks, and the feeble 
beginning of the movement which has revolution- 
ized the government. In later years one of these 
young men was Minister of Public Instruction for 
the empire. 

In 1861 the reign of the weak but well-intentioned 
Abd-ul-Medjid came to an end, and his brother 
Abd-ul-Aziz ascended the throne, — a genuine Turk 
of the old school, as determined an autocrat as 
his father, but of unbalanced mind ; wildly extrava- 
gant, to such an extent that he reduced the empire 
to bankruptcy; fond of cock-fighting and similar 
amusements. He once decorated a successful fight- 
ing-cock with the first class of the Order of the 
Medjidie. On another occasion he smashed the fur- 
niture and mirrors in his palace, in a fit of rage. 

During the first ten years of his reign, French 
influence was supreme in Constantinople, and two 
of the Turkish Ministers, Fuad and Aali Pashas, 
were recognized in Europe as statesmen of unusual 
ability. They induced the Sultan to ignore the tra- 
ditions of his ancestors and make a tour through 
Europe to visit the Emperor Napoleon. He was 
careful to take with him the next heirs to the throne, 
his two nephews, Murad and Hamid, to guard 
against a revolution during his absence. 

On the occasion of his return and of the visit 
of the Empress Eugenie after the opening of the 
Suez Canal, we had the most magnificent fetes on 
the Bosphorus that Constantinople had ever seen. 
During these ten years of French influence there 
was comparative peace in Constantinople, except 

xviii 



INTRODUCTION 

for the conflict between the Greeks and Bulgari- 
ans over their church relations. The Sultan was 
building palaces, buying ironclads for his navy, 
and making foreign loans to pay for them. The 
people were generally prosperous and contented, 
and there was always talk of reforms in the empire. 

But the influence of the great changes going on 
in Europe stirred the subject races of European 
Turkey to revolt against the Turkish rule. Servia, 
Wallachia and Moldavia were successful. The Cre- 
tans defeated the Turkish armies again and again, 
and maintained an heroic struggle for liberty for 
three years, aided by the Greeks ; but the powers 
of Europe allowed them to be subdued at last. 

The fall of the French Empire put an end to 
French influence in Constantinople; and as Bis- 
marck had no interest in the Eastern Question, there 
was a battle royal between England and Russia to 
win the confidence of the Sultan and control his 
policy. It was the object of Sir Henry Elliott, the 
British ambassador, to maintain and strengthen 
the Turkish Empire as a barrier against the ad- 
vance of Russia, while General Ignatieff, the Rus- 
sian ambassador, hoped to free the Slavic pro- 
vinces of European Turkey from Turkish rule, 
and make of them a bridge by which Russia could 
come to Constantinople. While the secret agents 
of Russia were everywhere encouraging the Slavs 
to rise in rebellion against the Turks, Sir Henry 
Elliott was conspiring with the Turks to dethrone 
the Sultan, and at the same time to put down the 
revolutionary movements in the European Pro- 
vinces with fire and sword. 

xix 



INTRODUCTION 

The English ambassador cast in his lot with what 
was then first known as the Young Turkey party, 
the leader of which was Midhat Pasha. This party 
at that time was a sort of " Cave of Adullam" ; the 
only thing in which they agreed was the desire to 
throw off the tutelage of Europe and restore the 
strength and independence of the Turkish Empire. 
For some of them this meant a great panislamic 
revival and the restoration of the ancient power 
of the Caliph. Others dreamed of a new Turkey, 
in which Moslems and Christians should unite to- 
gether to throw off the yoke of Europe, and build 
up a great and prosperous Ottoman Empire by 
themselves. A few were republicans, a few anar- 
chists. Midhat Pasha himself had been a very suc- 
cessful provincial governor, an able administrator, 
devoted to road-making and other public improve- 
ments, self-educated, and a most interesting talker 
on political affairs. His personal following was 
never very large, but his intimate relations with 
Sir Henry Elliott made him an important conspira- 
tor. 

The conflict went on until, in May, 1876, General 
Ignatieff appeared to have been defeated along the 
whole line. Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz was deposed, and 
a week later either murdered or allowed to commit 
suicide. First Murad and then Hamid was put 
upon the throne by Sir Henry and his Turkish 
allies. Midhat Pasha was Grand Vizier, and Gen- 
eral Ignatieff's proteges in the European provinces 
were slaughtered without mercy. It was dramatic, 
— a revolution and three sultans within three 
months, — but it was a barren victory for both 



INTRODUCTION 

Sir Henry Elliott and Midhat Pasha. Within a 
year Sir Henry was retired and Midhat Pasha sent 
into exile, to be finally assassinated in Arabia, while 
Turkey was plunged into a war with Russia which 
resulted in the loss of most of her European pos- 
sessions. There was one force which Sir Henry 
resolutely ignored, and that was the public opinion, 
the sympathies of the Christian world. The out- 
side world did not care whether the Sultan was 
Aziz or Murad or Hamid, but the wholesale mas- 
sacre of unarmed Christian people by the Turks 
in Bulgaria made a European intervention inev- 
itable, and when, at the end of the year 1876, the 
Conference of Constantinople opened a way for a 
peaceful settlement in a partial autonomy for the 
Christian provinces, Sir Henry and Midhat Pasha 
made the mistake of believing that Europe could be 
satisfied by the pretense that Turkey had suddenly 
become a constitutional government under which 
Moslem and Christian were to have equal rights. 
After this, war was inevitable, and no Christian 
state dared to ally itself with Turkey. This un- 
happy constitution of Midhat Pasha, which the 
Sultan had accepted to humbug Europe, had to 
wait thirty-two years before the autocratic rule of 
Abd-ul- Hamid had driven the Turks themselves 
to revolt and to seek refuge in its establishment. 

Life in Constantinople during these years of 
massacre, revolution and war, from 1875 to 1878, 
was anything but peaceful. They were years of wild 
excitement, sometimes of joy, sometimes of despair, 
on the part of the Turks. When they had beaten 
the Servians, terrorized Bulgaria, defied Europe 

xxi 



INTRODUCTION 

by rejecting the demands of the Conference, and 
declared war with Russia, they were full of enthusi- 
asm and hope. During the first months of the war, 
when the Turks had checked the advance of the 
Russians, the Christian population of the city was 
alarmed for its own safety. When the tide turned 
and the city was filled with disbanded soldiers and 
starving Turkish refugees, the Christians prayed 
for the speedy coming of the Russians. The hor- 
rors of that winter can never be forgotten. Thou- 
sands of these poor Turks, men, women and chil- 
dren, died in the streets and mosques of starvation 
and of pestilence. They were too far gone, when 
they reached the city, to plunder it. Then came 
the Russian armies, which camped outside the 
city, and at whose headquarters the Sultan agreed 
to the treaty of San Stefano, which provided for 
the dismemberment of his empire. It was with 
great difficulty that the Sultan was dissuaded from 
abandoning Constantinople and retiring to Broosa. 
But for the arrival of the English fleet, he would 
probably have gone and the Russians would have 
occupied the city. 

The intervention of England led to the Congress 
of Berlin, in which Prince Bismarck professed to 
act the part of "an honest broker" between the 
Powers. The treaty of Berlin, which took the place 
of the treaty of San Stefano, humiliated Russia 
without helping Turkey, while it ignored the rights 
and interests of the people of the provinces of 
which it disposed. It was a triumph for Lord Bea- 
consfield, but it was a misfortune for England, and 
has been a source of trouble in Europe ever since. 

xxii 



INTRODUCTION 

When the war was over, peace concluded and 
the treaty of Berlin signed, Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid 
set himself to his task of rebuilding the shattered 
fabric of his empire. To those who knew Turkey 
best it seemed a hopeless task — the treasury bank- 
rupt, credit gone, the richest provinces lost, the 
army defeated and demoralized, the people dis- 
heartened or disloyal, and neighbors awaiting the 
chance to strike another blow. All honor to Sultan 
Hamid that he undertook this task with unshaken 
faith in the destiny of his country. He bore the 
burden alone, a solitary autocrat, trusting no one 
but himself, least of all his appointed ministers. He 
reigned supreme for thirty years after the war, and 
proved himself more than a match for all the diplo- 
mats of Europe. The story of these thirty years, up 
to the time when his autocratic rule was brought 
to an end by the revolution of July, 1908, ought to 
have been heroic. In fact it is pitiful, and the pity 
of it comes from two fatal mistakes. He was a self- 
constituted prisoner in his palace, and undertook 
to hold the whole administration of the empire 
in his own hands. As no man could do this work 
alone, he surrounded himself with irresponsible 
attendants, secretaries, valets, astrologers, spies and 
other vagabonds of various Moslem races, some of 
them the worst characters in the empire. He was 
possessed by the idea that he was in danger of assas- 
sination, and his attendants made him believe that 
it was only by their care that his life could be pre- 
served. They were but little better than a band 
of brigands, and there was no conceivable crime 
which they did not commit under the protection 

xxiii 



INTRODUCTION 

of the Sultan. Their chief object was plunder, and 
as they were the real rulers of the empire, no one 
was safe from their extortions. There was no escape 
from this palace camarilla except in revolution. 
Europe would no doubt have intervened years ago, 
but for the fact that the German Emperor took 
this camarilla under his special protection. 

The Sultan himself had some ideas which were 
worthy of a great sovereign, and which he at- 
tempted to carry out. He saw the need of education 
and ordered the establishment of a great number of 
schools for Turks, even for girls. He saw the need 
of training for the officers of the army and in- 
duced the German Emperor to loan him a number 
of distinguished officers for this purpose. He en- 
couraged the building of roads and railways. He 
interested himself in the sanitary condition of the 
empire, built a number of admirable hospitals and 
reorganized the medical schools. He favored the 
development of the mineral resources of the coun- 
try and was no doubt interested in its general pros- 
perity. The palace camarilla had no interest in any 
of these things except so far as they afforded them 
opportunities for plunder. Death or exile was the 
fate of those who opposed them. They made the 
Sultan believe that his schools were fostering sedi- 
tion, and that the officers trained by the Germans 
were not to be trusted. They organized a system of 
espionage which employed thousands of spies and 
created a reign of terror for all intelligent Turks 
and Christians. Hundreds were secretly put to 
death, and many thousands sent into exile. Many 
others secretly escaped from the country. These 

xxiv 



INTRODUCTION 

were condemned in their absence, and their pro- 
perty was confiscated. The suffering of the people 
all through the empire under this regime was ter- 
rible. Even the army was half starved and clad in 
rags. 

The Sultan took his religious rank as Caliph of 
the Mohammedan world more seriously than his 
immediate ancestors did, and in this he seems to 
have been encouraged by the palace camarilla. 
How far his motives were religious and how far 
political, it is impossible to say. One of his inti- 
mates assured a friend of mine that the Sultan was 
an agnostic, with no faith in any religion ; but he 
certainly did his best to rouse the militant spirit 
of Mohammedanism, not only in Turkey but all 
over the Moslem world, and also to break down the 
influence of his own Christian subjects. He would 
have taken away all their established rights, if Rus- 
sia and other Christian powers had not intervened 
in their behalf. 

The treaty of Berlin had a special article in the 
interest of the Armenians, but the Turks soon dis- 
covered that England was the only power interested 
in enforcing it, and nothing was done. The more 
loudly the Armenians appealed to Europe, the 
heavier was the hand of the Sultan; until finally, 
in 1894, the work of extermination was commenced 
in ancient Armenia. In 1895 there was a massacre 
of about a thousand in Constantinople, and as the 
powers tolerated this, the massacres went on for a 
year all over Asiatic Turkey, culminating in the 
great massacre in Constantinople in 1896, when 
some ten thousand were slaughtered in the streets 

XXV 



INTRODUCTION 



of the city, which literally ran with blood. Even 
worse than the killing of so many was the tireless 
plunder and persecution that went on from 1880 
to 1908. It was only the palace camarilla and its 
agents that profited by this. It was through its 
influence that the Sultan approved it, while the 
better, more enlightened class of Turks felt that 
this plunder and massacre of the Christians was a 
political blunder and a great moral wrong, whatever 
provocation had been given by the Armenian revo- 
lutionists in their attempts to attract the attention 
and secure the support of Europe. 

The palace camarilla made a similar mistake 
in encouraging the revolutionists in Egypt, under 
the impression that in so doing it was working in 
the interest of panislamism, and strengthening the 
hands of the Caliph. The result was the occupa- 
tion of Egypt by England. Turkey had the oppor- 
tunity to join England in the occupation of the 
country, but failed to improve it. The loss which 
was most keenly felt at the palace was the cutting 
off of the golden stream of backsheesh which was 
always coming in from the Khedive. 

Following closely upon the loss of Egypt came 
the revolt of Eastern Roumelia, in 1885, and its 
annexation to Bulgaria. In this case Turkey hap- 
pily followed the lead of England and refused the 
demand of Russia that she should reconquer the 
province. The Czar had his revenge in stirring 
up the Servians to attack Bulgaria, and, when they 
were beaten, in kidnapping and dethroning Prince 
Alexander; but Bulgaria lived and flourished in 
spite of his enmity. 

xxvi 



INTRODUCTION 

These changes in Egypt and Bulgaria brought 
about great diplomatic conflicts in Constantinople, 
which added not a little to the interest of life in 
that city. 

In the summer of 1894 Constantinople was se- 
verely shaken by an earthquake, which caused the 
death of some fifteen hundred persons, most of 
whom were buried in the ruins of the bazaars, and 
great numbers of people camped out for a month, 
while the shocks were repeated almost every day. 

The same year the Greeks in Constantinople 
resented the action of the palace in restricting their 
rights, by closing all their churches, and Russia in- 
tervened in their behalf. In 1889, 1896, and 1897, 
there were revolts of the Greeks in Crete, which 
resulted in a war between Greece and Turkey, in 
which the Turks, aided by German officers, easily 
defeated the Greeks, and were prevented from occu- 
pying Athens only by the intervention of Europe ; 
but, as generally happens in such cases, Turkey 
was not allowed to reap the fruits of victory. The 
European powers took possession of Crete, and 
nothing was left of the Turkish rule over the island 
but a small Turkish flag on an island in Suda Bay. 

In 1903 the storm-centre in Turkey was trans- 
ferred to Macedonia. The condition of the pro- 
vince had been pitiable ever since the Congress of 
Berlin had recommended that it be made an au- 
tonomous province by Turkey. The Turks refused 
to carry out this plan, and the Christian population 
was given over to be exterminated by Albanian 
brigands and Turkish officials. As Europe would 
do nothing to help them, the people finally revolted. 

xxvii 



INTRODUCTION 

This movement was directed by a committee of 
Bulgarian revolutionists which had brought the 
whole Christian population under its control by 
systematic terrorism ; and for a while it was success- 
ful. From that time up to July, 1908, the state of the 
country was such as to force the European powers 
to intervene. That nothing was accomplished by suc- 
cessive interventions was due to the fact that Rus- 
sia and Austria were allowed to take the lead, and 
neither of them desired any permanent settlement 
of the question. It was only the Western powers 
which had any real sympathy for the people of 
the province. The Turks might have put an end to 
the existing anarchy, but they preferred to encour- 
age the conflict of races and religions which was 
going on and destroying the Christians. We may 
find some excuse for the Turks, but the conduct of 
the European powers, including Greece and Bul- 
garia, admits of no excuse. For five years Constan- 
tinople was constantly agitated by the different 
phases of this question. 

The revolution of July, 1908, was the triumph 
of a process of enlightenment which has been going 
on for many years among the Turks. They have 
ruled over the many conquered races of the empire 
for six hundred years in the spirit of Asiatic despots, 
and have shown themselves to be the most remark- 
able race that has ever come out of Central Asia to 
trouble the peace of Europe. Fifty years ago they 
were essentially unchanged from what they were 
when they first appeared in Asia Minor. This immo- 
bility has undoubtedly come from the unchange- 
able character of Mohammedanism. It is only since 

xxviii 



INTRODUCTION 

the Crimean War that any number of them have 
come under the influence of Christian civilization. 
Thirty years ago, in the time of Midhat Pasha, we 
first heard of a Young Turkey party, which pro- 
posed to modernize the form of government; but 
it was too weak to influence Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid, 
and the palace camarilla waged an incessant war 
against the Christian nationalities which naturally 
sympathized with the Young Turkey party. 

The sudden and astonishing success of the revo- 
lution was due to many causes, first of all to the uni- 
versal fear and hatred for the existing government, 
and next, to the wisdom and tact of the Committee 
of Union and Progress which directed it. It was a 
wonderful inspiration which led them to attempt 
nothing at Constantinople, and, after having se- 
cured the support of the army, to strike their blow 
from Macedonia and revolutionize Constantinople 
by telegraph. The palace camarilla and the regi- 
ments of the Sultan's body-guard could do nothing. 
There was nothing in Constantinople for them to 
strike. 

Of course, behind all these things was the rapid 
progress of enlightenment among the Turks during 
these thirty years. This was due in some measure 
to the acts of the Sultan himself. He had seen the 
necessity of education for the Turks, and founded 
many schools of all kinds. He had brought Ger- 
man officers for his military schools, and German 
doctors for his medical schools and hospitals, who 
inspired the Young Turks with modern ideas. 
Every enlightened Turk sent into exile in the in- 
terior became a centre of light, and every one who 

xxix 



INTRODUCTION 

managed to escape to Europe was filled with new 
ideas of society and of government. 

Other influences have been potent. Every mis- 
sionary station, and every school and college, has 
not only elevated its Christian students and the few 
Turks who attended these schools, but it has shown 
to all the value of education and made them more or 
less familiar with the progress of Christian civiliza- 
tion. The influence of education on the Bulgarians 
made a profound impression upon the Turks, even 
upon the Sultan himself, 

In addition to all these things, intelligent and 
patriotic Turks were moved by the rapid decline of 
their power and the dismemberment of the em- 
pire. They had a great history to stir their pride, 
and felt that by nature they were the equals of any 
other race while even in the Mohammedan world 
their influence was waning. They felt that their 
only hope lay in the transformation of their govern- 
ment, the education and general enlightenment of 
the Turkish people. 

It was a Turkish revolution in the interest of the 
Turks and designed to strengthen their power, but 
its leaders took for their watchwords, Liberty, Jus- 
ice, Equality and Fraternity, for all the races and 
religions of the empire, with equal rights and equal 
duties for all. As we in America proclaimed these 
principles in 1776, and have not yet been able to 
put them in force in all parts of our country, we 
may expect to wait some time before they can be 
fully carried out in Turkey ; but there is no reason 
to doubt the honesty and sincerity of the Young 
Turkey party in proclaiming them. 

XXX 



INTRODUCTION 

Abd-ul-Hamid professed to accept the new order 
of things which had transformed him from an auto- 
crat into a constitutional sovereign, but at heart 
he resented the dictation of the Young Turks and 
secretly plotted for their destruction. April 13, 1909, 
he startled the world by a counter revolution at 
Constantinople and the massacre of many thou- 
sand Christians in Asia Minor and Syria. In a few 
days his triumph seemed complete, but eleven days 
later the Young Turks, with an army from Macedo- 
nia, stormed and captured the city. Abd-ul-Hamid 
was taken prisoner, deposed and transported to 
Salonica, while his brother was proclaimed Sul- 
tan Mahomet V and reigned in his stead. 

How far the conquered races in Turkey, Moslem 
and Christian, will heartily accept this new form 
of Turkish rule and give it their support remains 
to be seen. The wild enthusiasm and joy of the first 
days of emancipation from the tyranny of the palace 
camarilla have passed, and already some of these 
nationalities have come to remember that what 
they have desired was not the reform but the de- 
struction of the Turkish Empire. Russia and Aus- 
tria are not likely to discourage this feeling, which 
has been the basis of their policy for more than a 
century. 

However this may be, we have to-day a new 
Constantinople hastening to be transformed into 
a European city. The old Asiatic Constantinople 
of a hundred, or even fifty years ago will soon 
disappear. 

Boston, 1909. 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 



CHAPTER I 

THE FOUNDING OF ROBERT COLLEGE 

Robert College was founded by Mr. Christopher 
Rheinlander Robert, a New York merchant descended 
from a French Huguenot family of Rochelle, France. 1 

There is still an impression in some quarters in 
America, that the idea of founding a Christian college in 
Constantinople was a whim of Mr. Robert's, a notion 
which sprang from his brain as did Athena from the head 
of Zeus, and it is often spoken of as Mr. Robert's college. 
The truth is that the College grew out of the natural de- 
velopment of American missions in Turkey, in which 
Mr. Robert had long been interested. The policy of the 
missionary boards at that time was opposed to the ex- 

1 Mr. Robert was descended, in the fourth generation, from 
Daniel Robert of Rochelle, who was believed to have been a di- 
rect descendant of Count Robert of Normandy, the son of 
William the Conqueror, King of England. Daniel Robert was 
a Huguenot, and emigrated to New York in 1701, after the revo- 
cation of the Edict of Nantes, when he became a British subject. 
His grandson, Mr. Robert's father, was a graduate of Columbia 
and Edinburgh Universities, a physician by profession, who, after 
living ten years in the British West Indies, returned to New York 
in 1784 and bought a large estate on Long Island, where Mr. 
Christopher R. Robert was born March 23, 1802. When fifteen 
years old he went into a merchant's office in New York, and 
continued in business all his life. 

1 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

penditure of missionary funds for education. A resolu- 
tion was passed at the annual meeting of the A. B. C. F. 
M. in 1856, that the only work of the missionary was to 
preach the Gospel, "the oral utterance of the Gospel in 
public or in private " ; but the time had come when some 
at least of the missionaries in the field saw the necessity 
of a new departure, saw what a Christian college might 
accomplish in the elevation of the people. Mr. Robert 
was the first man of means in America to see and appre- 
ciate this necessity, the man whom God chose to meet 
this want in Turkey, and to turn the tide of missionary 
work in other parts of the world in this direction. The 
fact that he was the treasurer of the Ajnerican Home 
Missionary Society, which had already discovered this 
need in the newer states of the West, was perhaps one 
reason why he became a leader in this movement. Mr. 
Robert himself always felt that he had been providen- 
tially directed to the sacrifices which he made to found 
and sustain the College. It was the Lord's work, not his. 

There were good reasons why the first American col- 
lege of this kind should have been founded at Constan- 
tinople. Not only had the attention of the Christian 
world been concentrated upon the Turkish Empire by 
the Crimean War, but the people of Turkey had been 
aroused to new life and were beginning to seek for edu- 
cation. It was believed that a new era of tolerance and 
liberty had dawned upon the East, that the government, 
as well as the people, was desirous of encouraging prog- 
ress in every form, that at last there was an open door in 
Turkey. Sultan Abd-ul-Medjid was a reformer, Fuad 
and Aali Pashas were enlightened statesmen. The Hatt- 
i-houmayoun was a charter of liberty for all. This was 
the general belief of the Americans in Turkey. 

2 



THE FOUNDING OF ROBERT COLLEGE 

The French and the Roman Catholics had been quick 
to see and improve the opportunity for political and reli- 
gious propaganda. They had established a number of 
schools of a low grade, and had induced many of the 
wealthy families to send their sons to Paris. French in- 
fluence was already dominant here. There were but few 
native schools of any kind. There were some Moham- 
medan schools for small children connected with the 
mosques, as well as naval, military and theological 
schools. There were a few Protestant and Catholic 
mission-schools, and here and there the Christian nation- 
alities had established schools, in some of which there 
were teachers who were doing good work ; but there was 
nothing corresponding to an American college in the em- 
pire. More than anywhere else in the world at that time, 
there seemed to be an open door and a great work to be 
done. Constantinople was the natural place to begin it. 
It was not only the capital of the empire, but it had been 
for fifteen centuries the centre of life and power in this 
part of the world. 

The idea of founding a college at Constantinople was 
first suggested to Mr. Robert in 1857 by Messrs. James 
and William Dwight, the sons of Rev. Dr. H. G. O. 
D wight, then a missionary here. They were young men 
of high character, graduates of Yale College and Union 
Theological Seminary. They called upon Mr. Robert, 
as a well-known philanthropist and friend of missions, 
and stated that they had for some time contemplated 
founding a school at Constantinople, not in any way con- 
nected with the Mission and tolerant of the religious 
prejudices of the natives, which they hoped would soon 
become self-supporting, and they proposed to associate 
with themselves an Armenian, also a graduate of Yale. 

3 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 



Mr. Robert was interested in their plan, and in Octo- 
ber, 1857, a meeting was held at his house to consider 
this proposition. Those present were Rev. Drs . Wm . M. 
Adams, A. D. Smith, G. W. Wood, M. Badger, D. B. 
Coe, W. G. Schauffler and E. Riggs (the last two from 
Constantinople), Hon. Geo. P. Marsh, Messrs. Robert, 
Ely, Moore, Ransom and Schiefflin. No decisive action 
was taken at this meeting beyond the suggestion of six 
names for trustees of the proposed school. Five of these 
gentlemen appear to have met once in March, 1858, and 
in May the Messrs. Dwight called on Mr. Robert again, 
and he wrote to Dr. Hamlin to ask his opinion of the 
plan ; but, so far as I can learn from the correspondence 
in my hands, no money was ever pledged by any one to 
carry out this project, and it was abandoned. The 
reasons for the failure of the Messrs. Dwight to secure 
support appear to have been their youth, lack of confi- 
dence in the person associated with them, the financial 
crisis in America at the time, and a difference of opinion 
as to the religious status of the school. The Messrs. 
Dwight proposed to make the school purely secular, 
while Mr. Robert and others, to whom they appealed, 
felt that there was no reason why they should give money 
for a school in Constantinople, unless it was to be dis- 
tinctively Christian. Dr. Hamlin had written to the 
Messrs. Dwight in 1856, that it must be ' ' a decided, 
thorough Christian school from its very commence- 
ment," or it would not secure the confidence of the 
people. A school without a religion would be an inex- 
plicable anomaly in Constantinople, and, as he said in 
another letter, " would be regarded as a trap to cheat 
the devil." 1 

1 In justice to the memory of the Messrs. Dwight it should be 

4 



THE FOUNDING OF ROBERT COLLEGE 



Mr. Robert had become too much interested in the 
idea of founding a college in Constantinople to let it 
drop when the Messrs. Dwight gave it up, and he natu- 
rally turned to Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, whose acquaintance 
he had made when he visited Constantinople during the 
Crimean War, at the time when Dr. Hamlin was fur- 
nishing the British hospitals and soldiers with bread . He 
had previously consulted him as to the project of the 
Messrs. Dwight and January 3, 1859, in a postscript to 
a letter, he wrote : " Since writing a few lines this morn- 
ing it has occurred to me to ask confidentially whether, 
in view of the great importance of the institution referred 
to, it may not be your duty to take charge of it. I think 
thirty-five to forty thousand dollars can be secured for it 
with comparative ease, if you do, and I doubt if it can be 
without. My idea is to have the Messrs. Dwight as your 
assistants. You may write me fully on the subject." 

Apparently Dr. Hamlin either failed to notice the post- 
script, or did not take it seriously. Mr. Robert wrote 
him again March 15, repeating the question. To this 
Dr. Hamlin replied at length. After calling attention to 
the fact that he had certain disqualifications for the 
place ; that he was not a 'persona grata with the Turks, 
and had a very meagre knowledge of the Turkish lan- 
guage ; that he had not the requisite scholarship for the 

stated that in the original circular which they issued in 1856 they 
say, " It is desirable that the leading object of this institution should 
be to cooperate with the direct labor of others in the work of 
Protestant Evangelization, by giving the whole instruction a de- 
cided and unmistakable Evangelical influence, though it may be 
important that it should be distinctly recognized as standing on its 
own separate and independent basis." It appears to have been in 
the discussion of practical details that a serious difference of 
opinion arose. 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

post, and that his work in Bebec Seminary had aimed 
only at preparing young Armenians for the ministry by 
a short course of study, he concluded as follows : "This 
letter will be quite as unsatisfactory to you as to me. I 
do not see clearly what course the thing will take, and I 
wish to know the position of the Dwights before I go 
farther, also to ascertain the opinions of my associates 
and some good friends and advisers like Count DeZuy- 
len, the pious and excellent Dutch ambassador, Dr. 
Millingen, and others." 

Without waiting for a reply to his letter, Mr. Robert 
commissioned Rev. Drs. Coe and Badger to address to 
Dr. Hamlin a formal invitation to devote himself to this 
enterprise, which they did March 28, 1859, without 
mentioning Mr. Robert's name. Dr. Hamlin concluded 
that Mr. Robert had inspired this proposal, and wrote 
to him April 26: "I shall write to Messrs. Coe and 
Badger as soon as any light dawns upon my path. If I 
should feel it to be my duty to do anything for this great 
undertaking, it would be only to get it fairly started and 
leave it in abler hands. . . . It is of the Lord and can- 
not fail, whether I have anything to do with it or not." 

Mr. Robert wrote again June 27, to press the question, 
and August 22 Dr. Hamlin replied that he had laid the 
subject before his associates in the Mission, and that the 
majority had expressed a decided opinion in favor of his 
undertaking the work. Two weeks later he wrote again : 
"I have, with feelings of deep solemnity and sorrow, 
written my request to be released from the service of the 
Board as soon as my place can be supplied. ... I 
tremble at the responsibility I have assumed, but I trust 
that He who has upheld me through many trials and 
labors will not forsake me here." 

6 



THE FOUNDING OF ROBERT COLLEGE 

It appears from Dr. Hamlin's autobiography that 
what finally determined his acceptance of Mr. Robert's 
proposals was that he regarded the educational policy of 
the American Board as suicidal, and that the action of 
the Mission in accepting this policy and removing the 
Mission Seminary from Bebec to Marsovan put an end 
to the work to which his whole missionary life had been 
devoted. The proposed college would be a continuation 
and enlargement of that work. 1 

Mr. Robert and Dr. Hamlin were now both fully com- 
mitted to the work of founding a Christian college in 
Constantinople, and it was agreed that Dr. Hamlin 
should come to America to consult with Mr. Robert as 
to their plans and also to secure additional funds, but it 
was thought best that he should first secure a site for the 
College. This did not pro veto be an easy task. At first, 
the majority of his advisers, rather against his judgment, 
favored a location in old Stamboul and proposed the pur- 
chase of the old palace of Constantine Porphyrogenitus 
on the city wall. A meeting of the friends of the College 
at the Dutch Embassy, in January, 1860, finally ap- 
proved of the site on the Bosphorus near the Castle of 
Europe, where the College now stands ; but the owner of 
this site, Achmet Vefik Pasha, then Turkish ambassador 
in Paris, absolutely refused to sell at any price. This 
was a bitter disappointment, but Dr. Hamlin purchased 
what he considered to be the next best available site, the 
land on the hill above the village of Kourou Tcheshme. 
We held this property until 1904, when I sold it to the 
Scheik-ul-Islam for a little less than it cost. We had 
never been able to find a buyer for it before, at any 
reasonable price. When Dr. Hamlin returned from 

1 My Life and Times, pp. 413, 414. 
7 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

America a year later, it was found that Achmet Vefik 
Pasha had returned from Paris, needed money, and was 
willing to sell the land at Roumeli Hissar. After some 
months of negotiations, Dr. Hamlin, with Mr. Robert's 
approval, bought about half of the lot, about six acres, 
for sixteen hundred pounds sterling. Some years later, 
1 bought the other half for about eighteen hundred 
pounds sterling. It was an essential part of Dr. Ham- 
lin's agreement with Achmet Vefik Pasha that no money 
should be paid for the land until the necessary permis- 
sion had been given to erect a building upon it for the 
College. ThiswasDecember2,1861. In March, 1862, 
the Ministerpf Foreign Affairs having informed the Eng- 
lish ambassador and the American minister that the gov- 
ernment had given its consent to the erection of the Col- 
lege on this site, and the Minister of Public Instruction 
having authorized the establishment of the College, the 
money was paid over to Achmet Vefik Pasha. Dr. Ham- 
lin and his friends here felt that they had every reason to 
be jubilant. There is no more beautiful site for a college 
anywhere in the world, and no place on the Bosphorus to 
equal it. All the city wondered that such a site had been 
granted to an American college. 

Dr. Hamlin went to America in the summer of 1860, 
and returned in June, 1861 . It was not a favorable time 
to raise money, as the whole country was absorbed in the 
conflict between the free and the slave states, the Presi- 
dential election and the outbreak of the Civil War, but 
he had no little success in awakening an interest in the 
proposed college. Harvard University took it up with 
considerable enthusiasm, and it was under its auspices 
that he had a very successful meeting in Boston. His 
visits to England in going and coming were also of im- 

8 



THE FOUNDING OF ROBERT COLLEGE 

portance in gaining friends for the College there. But the 
great object of his visit was to come to a full understand- 
ing with Mr. Robert as to the character and purpose of 
the College, and to make such arrangements as were pos- 
sible for its organization and the erection of a building. 
A Board of Trustees was legally established, consisting 
of C. R. Robert, Wm. A. Booth, Milton Badger, David 
B. Coe, Wm. L. Lambert and David Hoadley, all per- 
sonal friends of Mr. Robert, and I believe all associated 
with him in the management of the American Home 
Missionary Society. Wm. A. Booth was President, and 
David B . Coe Secretary of the Board, and they held their 
offices until they died, many years after the death of Mr. 
Robert. They were his chosen advisers in everything 
concerning the College, and, for years after his death, 
the trustees were always guided by their judgment. 

In 1864 they were formally incorporated by act of the 
Legislature of New York, under the name of " The 
Trustees of Robert College of Constantinople" and the 
College was included with other state institutions in the 
University of the State of New York. This established 
the legal status of the College in America. 

The outbreak of the Civil War was a great blow to Dr. 
Hamlin and Mr. Robert, but neither of them was a man 
to turn back, when once he had put a hand to the plough, 
and they determined to go on and put up the building for 
the College. Dr. Hamlin spent much time in preparation 
for this. He interested Mr. Corliss of Providence in it, 
who gave him a steam-engine and other machinery for 
use in the woodwork of the building. He studied plans 
and bought considerable material. Most of all, he and 
Mr. Robert came to understand and trust each other, so 
that they could work together harmoniously. 

9 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

As has already been explained, Dr. Hamlin, on his re- 
turn from America, abandoned the site which he had 
bought at Kourou Tcheshme and bought the site at Rou- 
meli Hissar. After some delay he received permission to 
build on this site, and believed that his troubles were 
ended. This was in March, 1862. It proved to be not 
the end but the beginning of serious trouble. He was 
destined to wait more than six years, until Decem- 
ber 20, 1868, before he could begin work on this site. 
The new era and the open door in Turkey supposed 
to have been won by the Crimean War seemed to 
have disappeared. This change was undoubtedly 
due in some measure to the death of Sultan Abd- 
ul-Medjid and the accession of Abd-ul-Aziz, in 
June, 1861, — a man of totally different character, 
who soon changed the whole spirit of the govern- 
ment. Whatever else might be said of it, it was no 
longer weak. It soon became a strong government, 
whether for good or evil. But I think Dr. Hamlin 
was right in believing that the opposition to the Col- 
lege did not originate with the Turks. If left to 
themselves they would probably have regarded it 
as a matter of very little importance in any way. 
The powers that he had to contend with were 
France, Russia, and the Roman Catholic Church. 
Their influence was pushed to the utmost to prevent 
the establishment of a college which would promote 
and extend the use of the English language and the 
influence of Protestant, English and American, ideas 
in the East. They were formidable enemies because 
at that time our friends were weak. America, en- 
gaged in a great civil war, had little influence here, 
Prussia and Holland were friendly but without 

10 



THE FOUNDING OF ROBERT COLLEGE 

much influence. England, at the close of the Cri- 
mean War, had lost her dominant position at Con- 
stantinople. This had been won by France, and 
under Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz Russia regained much of 
her former influence here. England was still a 
power to be reckoned with, but, at the time when 
the college question came up, she was represented 
here by Sir Henry Bulwer, a brilliant but unprin- 
cipled man, who was ready to sacrifice anything to 
his own personal interest. At first he supported Dr. 
Hamlin, but in the end abandoned his cause to se- 
cure a bribe which finally cost him his place. The 
permission to build had been granted through the 
influence of Achmet Vefik Pasha, then a minister; 
but, only a few days after it was given, he was re- 
moved from office and his enemies were glad to do 
him any injury in their power. 

Under these unpropitious circumstances, and with 
the forces arrayed against the College, it was natural 
for the Porte to oppose the erection of the College, 
and in Turkey it is always easy to find excuses for 
delay. How not to do it is the perfection of Turkish 
diplomacy. The permission to build was never 
formally revoked, but six years of wearisome and 
often exasperating negotiations followed. When 
Lord Lyons came from Washington to the British 
embassy here in 1865, he took up the question with 
vigor, but unfortunately he was transferred to Paris 
in eighteen months. The last thing that he told me 
before he left was that he had finally settled the col- 
lege question with Aali Pasha. If he had remained 
here, that would have been the end of it; but he had 
no sooner gone than a new reason for delay was 

11 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 



found. For Dr. Hamlin and Mr. Robert these 
years were alternations of hope and despair. No- 
thing that they could do here or in Washington 
seemed to be of any avail and the prospect was 
never darker than in 1868. 

The final settlement was brought about most un- 
expectedly by a providential combination of agen- 
cies, unconsciously working together, and was long 
a mystery to Dr. Hamlin. The ball was set in mo- 
tion by Mr. George D. Morgan of New York, a 
gentleman who had never heard of the proposed 
college until he came to Constantinople as a traveler, 
in the winter of 1868. He saw Dr. Hamlin, investi- 
gated the case, and was so much interested that, 
when he returned to America a few months later, he 
went to Washington on purpose to persuade Mr. 
Seward to take action in behalf of the College. He 
first interested Senator Morgan and Mr. Evarts in 
the case, and they three went together to Mr. 
Seward, who had special reasons at that time to 
wish to please them. He was persuaded, sent for 
Blacque Bey, the Turkish minister, and pressed his 
demands in such a way that the minister wrote to 
Constantinople that this question must be settled 
at once or there would be serious trouble. This let- 
ter reached Constantinople not long before the ar- 
rival of Admiral Farragut at the Dardanelles, who 
insisted upon coming up to Constantinople in his 
flag-ship. His appearance in these waters at this 
time had nothing to do with the revolution in Crete, 
but to the Turks it seemed suspicious. They al- 
lowed him to come to Constantinople after some de- 
lay, and received him with great honors. To please 

12 



THE FOUNDING OF ROBERT COLLEGE 

his little son, now a professor in Columbia Univer- 
sity, Dr. Hamlin took him to call on the admiral, 
and by chance met a gentleman there who knew him 
well and introduced the subject of the College and its 
difficulties. The admiral was so much stirred by the 
injustice involved that he promised to speak to the 
Grand Vizier about it unofficially, if he had a 
chance. He found his opportunity at a grand dinner 
given in his honor, as Dr. Hamlin afterwards 
learned. No one at the College knew anything at 
that time of the action of Mr. Seward or the dis- 
patch of Blacque Bey, but the Turkish government 
put all these things together, and evidently believed 
that Admiral Farragut's real mission here was to 
settle the College question, with the possibility of his 
taking his ships to Crete in the background. They 
settled it, granting even more than had been asked, 
giving the College a toghrali irade, or imperial char- 
ter, as an American college under the protection of 
the United States with ex-territorial rights, and with 
all the privileges granted to educational institutions 
in Turkey. Indeed, they were so friendly and cor- 
dial that Dr. Hamlin wrote to Mr. Robert that, in 
case more money were needed, he should apply to 
the Sultan, who would undoubtedly give it. But he 
never applied. The irade was issued by the Sultan 
in September, 1868, but not communicated to the 
United States Legation until December 20, 1868. 
In October Aali Pasha informed the American min- 
ister that Dr. Hamlin "could go on and build as 
soon as he pleased and that an irade would appear 
in due time"; but Dr. Hamlin had been deceived so 
often that he did not care to act on this intimation. 

13 



CHAPTER II 



THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEC 

When it became probable in the summer of 1862 
that the contest over the site at Hissar would be a 
long one, Mr. Robert and Dr. Hamlin began at once 
to consider the possibility of opening the College 
elsewhere. The building belonging to the mission 
at Bebec, the suburban village on the Bosphorus 
just below Hissar, where Dr. Hamlin had for many 
years conducted the Mission school, was vacant, 
and no further permission from the government was 
necessary to open the College there. The American 
Board at Boston offered it rent free. Dr. Hamlin 
made extensive repairs, and the College was opened 
there September 16, 1863, with 4 students, 3 Eng- 
lish and 1 American, all residents of Constantinople. 
Two professors had been appointed in 1862, Rev. 
H. A. Schauffler and Rev. G. A. Perkins, and Mr. 
Robert had sent one to Germany and one to Yale 
to complete their preparation for the work in the 
College. They were present at the opening, and 
three or four native assistants had also been em- 
ployed. Before going to Germany Professor Schauf- 
fler raised twenty-one hundred and twenty dollars 
towards the foundation of a library for the College, 
and Harvard University contributed some two hun- 
dred volumes. Mr. Corliss of Providence, Mr. B. 
M. E. Durfee of Fall River, Mr. Wheelwright of 

14 



THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEG 

London, and Mrs. J. C. Whitin of Whitinsville 
added to this fund, so that when the College went 
to Roumeli Hissar the library contained some five 
thousand volumes. It now (1907) contains over 
twelve thousand volumes, has a card catalogue and 
is open to students every day. 

Before issuing a prospectus Dr. Hamlin felt that 
it was necessary to give a name to the College, and 
his advisory committee discussed the question with- 
out reaching any satisfactory conclusion, although 
many names were suggested. Mr. Robert had 
called it the American College, but this was rejected 
on the ground that it had a political significance. 
Finally Dr. Hamlin proposed Robert College as a 
neutral name, which could be spelled in all the lan- 
guages of the East. 1 This was adopted with accla- 
mation. Mr. Robert protested against it as unwise 
and contrary to all his principles, but Dr. Hamlin 
replied that it was too late to change it. The name 
had already been adopted in all the languages and 
was universally accepted as the best. 

The discussion of the character, organization and 
curriculum of the College commenced in 1859. Mr. 
Robert wrote June 27, 1859: "In my judgment 
the time has come for you in connection with some 
of your wisest associates and any others in whom 
you may think dwells the spirit of true wisdom to 
draw out the plan of a college, taking as a pattern 
the best in our country as to the course of study, 
government, Faculty, etc. The beginning of course 
must be small but let the plan be such that it can be 

1 This is more important than it may appear. My name, for 
example, cannot be spelled in any of these languages. 

15 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

enlarged to meet the wants of the community in 
which it is situated. The foundations therefore 
must be broad and deep, but looking to a gradual 
execution of the plan in its completeness. A rapid 
and hasty growth must not be expected or desired." 

The religious status of the College was made clear 
in the constitution adopted by the trustees. It was 
to be unsectarian and open to all without distinction 
of race or religion. It did not aim to destroy or 
weaken the ancient Christian churches of the East, 
but to develop the moral and spiritual life of its 
students, their faith in God and their purpose to 
obey his law. The constitution states that "it is to 
be founded and administered on the principles of 
the Bible : it is hereby declared and ordained that, 
while it is to be a scientific and literary institution, 
God and His word shall be distinctly acknowledged 
and honored therein: the Scriptures, as published 
by the American or British and Foreign Bible So- 
cieties being read and prayers offered at least once 
each day of each collegiate term, and Divine wor- 
ship held on the Sabbath, at which services the 
Faculty are expected to be present, and all the stu- 
dents shall attend unless for special and imperative 
reasons some are excused by the Faculty and 
teachers." 

Dr. Hamlin replied at great length to Mr. Rob- 
ert's letter of June 27, proposing in substance Eng- 
lish as the language of the College, Preparatory 
and Collegiate Departments, a governing Board of 
Trustees in New York, a local Board of Managers 
(or Advisers he wrote later) at Constantinople, a 
Faculty of a president and three professors, a course 

16 



THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEG 

of study essentially the same as in American col- 
leges, with the omission of Latin and Greek and the 
addition of French and the native languages, with 
some legal studies. 

There were two special reasons for making Eng- 
lish the language of the College. It was necessary 
to have a neutral common language for students of 
many races and tongues and this could only be some 
European language. Among these it was natural 
for us to choose English. Moreover, there were no 
text books to be had in any native language and no 
means of pursuing any science or other subject such 
as was offered by the literature of England and 
America. The use of English has attracted many 
students to the College for its own sake. 

Mr. Robert objected to the exclusion of the clas- 
sics, and since the second year's graduates in 1869 
Latin has always been required for the degree of 
A. B. Otherwise the European universities would 
have refused to recognize our diplomas. The local 
Board of Managers was organized and was probably 
useful for a time, but died a natural death in a few 
years. Dr. Hamlin proposed to confine the study of 
the native languages to the Preparatory Department, 
but it has been found necessary to give them special 
prominence and continue them through the whole 
course. This helps the College to give a thorough 
education to students of different nationalities with- 
out denationalizing them or unfitting them to be- 
come the leaders of their own people. 

Dr. Hamlin was not discouraged by the small 
number of students the first year, 1863-64. Before 
the close of the year 20 had been registered, all but 

17 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

2 Europeans or Americans. Towards the end of the 
year 2 Greeks came. 

The second year, 1864-65, opened with 23 stu- 
dents, and 28 in all were registered during the year, 
of whom 4 were Greeks, 1 Armenian and 1 Bulga- 
rian. This year was a very trying one for Mr. Rob- 
ert and Dr. Hamlin, aside from the troubles in 
regard to the site. The two professors constituted a 
majority in the Faculty, and even during the first year 
there were serious differences of opinion between 
them and Dr. Hamlin as to the management and 
discipline of the College. These culminated early in 
the second year, and the trustees were called upon 
to decide whether to accept the resignation of Dr. 
Hamlin or of the two professors. They did the 
latter, and Dr. Hamlin was left alone in the middle 
of the year to carry on the College as best he could 
with his native assistants. 

In addition to this difficulty Dr. Hamlin had to 
expel for immorality four students belonging to the 
best European families in the city, and this stirred up 
new enmity against the College. One peculiarly 
Eastern method of injuring an enemy was experi- 
enced during the year. Some one secretly intro- 
duced into the dormitories a piece of an old garment 
swarming with lice, which was not discovered until 
the evil had spread among the boys. 

The year closed with one of those terrible calami- 
ties which used to be so common in Constantinople. 
The Asiatic cholera carried off some seventy thou- 
sand persons in three months. The College was 
closed early, before there had been any cases in 
Bebec, and Dr. Hamlin and his family went to the 

18 



THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEC 

Princes Islands to regain his health. He was suffer- 
ing from insomnia and nervous prostration. I re- 
mained in Bebec, and one of my sons, about two 
years old, was the first victim of the epidemic there, 
after which Mrs. Washburn and I devoted our- 
selves to the care of the sick in the village for two 
months. I had to go to town frequently to attend 
to my work there, where Dr. Long and Mr. Trow- 
bridge had given themselves entirely to the care of 
the sick in the public khans. It would require the 
pen of a De Quincey to describe the scenes which I 
witnessed, pathetic, grotesque, horrible, a dance of 
death among men who had lost their hold upon the 
humanities of life. 

The epidemic passed away with a great fire in 
Constantinople which consumed some ten thousand 
houses and seemed to disinfect the city. 

What with the cholera and the fire it was not 
strange that the third' college year, 1865-66, 
opened with only 8 students. The number grad- 
ually increased, and the whole number registered 
was 51, of whom 20 were Armenians, 9 Bulgarians 
and 6 Greeks. 

In place of the two professors Mr. Robert sent 
out two tutors, Messrs. Ostrander and Rodger, for 
a period of three years. This was the beginning of 
a plan which has continued in force all through the 
history of the College. In the Appendix of this 
volume will be found a paper which was drawn up 
by Mr. Robert and sent by him to the colleges where 
he was seeking candidates for this position. I think 
that this is the latest form of it. He had modified it 
from time to time as his practical experience with 

19 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

the men sent out suggested weaknesses to be avoided. 
I remember when he inserted the clause not conscien- 
tiously obstinate. It is well worth reading, not only 
as illustrating Mr. Robert's character but also his 
idea of the work which the College ought to do. 

Probably his ideal was never realized in any one 
tutor; in fact, one college president wrote to him 
that no such men existed in this world, but many of 
those who have filled this position in the College have 
been men of rare ability and the highest character. 
Their personal influence over the students has been 
a very important factor in the work of the College, 
as they lived with the students and came into more 
intimate relations with them than was possible to 
the professors. It is the almost unanimous testi- 
mony of the men who have filled these positions 
that their years spent in the College were the most 
fruitful years in their preparation for their life-work. 
They gained here new and broader conceptions of 
life, of the world as a whole and of men and in- 
dividuals, besides enjoying rare opportunities for 
study and travel. 

The names of all the professors and American 
tutors who were connected with the College during 
the first forty years will be found in the Appendix. 

At the beginning of this year Dr. Hamlin secured 
the services of an English lady, Mrs. Julia Calluci, 
as matron of the College. 

There can be no doubt that the close of the Civil 
War in America and the final triumph of the na- 
tional government added much to the prestige of 
the College among the people here and was one 
cause of the increase in the number of students. 

20 



THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEC 

It was also a great relief and great joy to Mr. Rob- 
ert and Dr. Hamlin. They were men of strong con- 
victions and deep feeling, devoted patriots, whose 
hearts were bound up in this struggle for national 
life and freedom for the slave. Their letters are full 
of it, and when peace came a great burden was re- 
moved from their minds and hearts. 

Mr. Robert at once interested himself in the edu- 
cation of the poor whites in the South, bought the 
United States Hospital buildings, with the land and 
furniture, on Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, 
Tenn., and established a school there under the 
direction of Mr. Bancroft, who in later years became 
the famous principal of Phillips Academy, Andover. 
Mr. Robert's letters show that his interest in this 
school was quite as great as his interest in Robert 
College. 

The fourth college year, 1866-67, opened with a 
large increase of students. The whole number reg- 
istered during the year was 96, of whom 19 were 
Armenians, 13 Bulgarians and 18 Greeks. There 
was nothing to disturb the peace of the year but a 
terrific storm of which Dr. Hamlin gives a graphic 
account in his letters and which very nearly swept 
the college building into the Bosphorus. 

Dr. Hamlin's sympathies were deeply stirred 
during the year by the long and serious illness of 
two of the students, one of whom, a very promising 
Bulgarian, died, and the other, a German, was dis- 
abled, so that he was a cripple for life, although he 
finally recovered so far as to graduate in 1869. 

One of the questions much discussed during the 
year and in regard to which Mr. Robert and Dr. 

21 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

Hamlin never agreed was that of beneficiaries, of re- 
ceiving a certain number of students at a reduced 
rate. To satisfy Dr. Hamlin the trustees in 1864 
voted that "the President select any number, not 
exceeding six, talented youth of high moral charac- 
ter, one from each of the large nationalities of the 
Turkish Empire, who shall enjoy the privileges of 
the College by paying one-fourth to three-fourths 
of the ordinary charges." In 1867 it was added 
that "those so received should sign a pledge that 
they will diligently pursue the prescribed course 
of instruction not less than three years." In fact, 
a much larger number had been received by Dr. 
Hamlin and he also rejected the last regulation as 
"needless, useless and injurious." In 1868 one- 
fourth of the students were beneficiaries and the 
amount deducted for them from the regular charges 
was about twenty-five hundred dollars, about five 
hundred dollars of which was specially contributed 
for this purpose by friends in England and America. 
Dr. Hamlin writes : "Both for scholarship and char- 
acter the students thus aided are the glory of the 
College. Of four prizes these men won three." 

The intensity of Dr. Hamlin's feeling on this sub- 
ject will be appreciated when we remember that his 
chief ambition was to make the College self-support- 
ing, and that his own salary at this time was only 
three hundred and seventy-five dollars a year and 
the board of his family in the College, a salary fixed 
by himself against the protest of Mr. Robert. 

Serious efforts have since been made to raise a 
substantial fund for beneficiaries but with limited 
success, and the College has regularly expended from 

22 



THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEG 

two thousand to three thousand dollars a year from 
its common funds for this purpose. It is under- 
stood however that we do not receive free students, 
and the aid given depends on scholarship and con- 
duct. 

Dr. Hamlin, in his annual report, writes very con- 
fidently of the steady improvement in the character 
and intellectual progress of the students and very 
hopefully of the religious influence of the College. 
No difficulties had arisen from the religious services 
or the teaching of the Bible in classes, and the stu- 
dents seemed interested in both. 

At the close of the year the trustees at the sug- 
gestion of Mr. Robert voted to invite Dr. Hamlin 
to visit Paris during the great Exposition and appro- 
priated five hundred dollars to meet his expenses. 
He went there and also attended the meeting of the 
Evangelical Alliance in Holland. He enjoyed this 
trip very much, especially the opportunity he had 
to make the acquaintance of many distinguished 
men and to purchase in Paris some new and inter- 
esting scientific apparatus for the College. 

He returned by way of the Danube to escape 
quarantine, and Messrs. Paine, Grosvenor and 
Wilcox, the new American teachers, came with him. 
As none of them had passports they were arrested 
when they reached Turkish territory at Rustchuk. 
Dr. Hamlin got through on the ground that he 
belonged to the suite of the Dutch ambassador's 
wife who had come with him from Holland, but the 
tutors were held until Dr. Hamlin could get orders 
at Constantinople to allow them to come on. 

This fourth year of Robert College was the first 

23 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

year of the Syrian Protestant College founded at 
Beirut under the presidency of Dr. Daniel Bliss, 
an old college-mate and dear friend of mine. It 
was the first fruit of the influence of Robert College 
in leading to the foundation of similar institutions 
in all mission fields, and it was incorporated in the 
state of New York in the same act with Robert 
College. Dr. Bliss had been in America and in 
England since 1862 to raise funds for it. The first 
class of 16 entered in 1866. It has been a trium- 
phant success, although like Robert College it has 
passed through many trying experiences. 

The fifth college year, 1867-68, opened with a 
full number of students. One hundred and two 
were registered during the year, of whom 14 were 
Armenians, 16 Bulgarians, 33 Greeks, but Dr. 
Hamlin in his report at the close of the year com- 
plains that many, especially of the Greek day 
scholars, " came only to try it. Not liking it, after 
a few lessons half learned, they left," so that at the 
end of the year there were but 75 students present. 
He speaks in the highest terms of the work done 
by Messrs. Grosvenor and Wilcox, the new tutors. 

The College bore fruit this year of a very different 
kind from the sister college at Beirut. The French 
ambassador here and M. Bore, the Director General 
of the Jesuit Missions, had failed to prevent the 
opening of Robert College; but they took advantage 
of the visit of Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz to Paris in 1867 
to induce the Emperor Napoleon to extract a prom- 
ise from the Sultan that on his return to Constanti- 
nople he would found a grand Lycee, the teachers 
in which should be appointed by the Emperor, the 

24 



THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEG 

language should be French and the whole cost 
should be paid by the Turkish government. In 
spite of the opposition of the Turks, the Russians 
and the English, the French government had in- 
fluence enough to hold the Sultan to his promise. 
The Lycee of Galata Serai was opened in 1868 in 
magnificent buildings, on a site unsurpassed in 
beauty by any other in Pera. Everything was done 
to make it attractive in every way and provision 
was made for six hundred students. The Emperor 
sent out a distinguished and experienced man as 
director with a large staff of able professors. Both 
our friends and our enemies felt that this would be 
the end of Robert College, especially as provision 
was made in the Lycee for a large number of free 
students. Dr. Hamlin was anxious but not disheart- 
ened, and there is no reason to believe that the Lycee 
of Galata Serai or any other of the numerous 
schools that have since been established in Con- 
stantinople has seriously affected the work of 
Robert College. The fall of the French Empire 
and the decline of French influence in Turkey led 
to great changes in the character of the Lycee. 
The language is still French and there are some 
eight hundred students, but it has long been a Turk- 
ish rather than a French school. It was destroyed 
by fire last winter (1907) but is to be rebuilt. 

There was considerable correspondence during 
the year between Mr. Robert and Dr. Hamlin in 
regard to the organization and the discipline of the 
College, suggested in some measure by troubles 
which had been experienced at Lookout Mountain. 
Dr. Hamlin did not think that it was desirable to 

25 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

attempt a systematic classification of the students, 
but preferred to deal with them individually. At 
the close of the year he selected two of them, Hago- 
pos Djedjizian, an Armenian, who had been two 
years in the College, and Petco Gorbanoff, a Bul- 
garian, who had been there three years, to graduate 
and received the degree of A. B. He justified this 
action in a detailed statement of the acquirements 
of the two young men, each far advanced in certain 
studies and far behind in others, but both mature 
in age and character. Both of them became teach- 
ers in the College the following year. The former 
has long been a professor in the College. The 
latter has held many important posts in Bulgaria. 

The first "Commencement Exercises" of the 
College were held at the close of the public oral 
examination of the various classes, which in former 
years had attracted considerable attention. This 
year the audience was as large as could be accom- 
modated, and all were enthusiastic over the orations 
of the two graduates and the speaking of other 
students in Turkish, Armenian, Bulgarian and 
French. The diplomas given were unique, long 
sheets of parchment, on which the conferring of 
the degrees was written, in fancy penmanship, in 
four languages — English, French, Turkish and 
Armenian or Bulgarian. I believe that similar 
diplomas were given in 1869. 

The sixth college year opened with 80 students, 
and 95 in all were registered during the year, of 
whom 11 were Armenians, 41 Bulgarians, 17 
Greeks. 

The all absorbing event of the year, which trans- 

26 



THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEC 

formed Dr. Hamlin from an educator into an archi- 
tect, builder and mechanic, was the permission to 
build at Hissar, which was given informally at 
the beginning of October and officially December 
20, 1868. In the evening of that day a general 
meeting of thanksgiving was held at the College and 
Dr. Hamlin writes, "It is a great triumph of right 
over wrong, and the Providence of God in bringing 
it about is truly wonderful and demands our warm- 
est gratitude and daily thanksgiving." All Con- 
stantinople had come to have an interest in this pro- 
longed contest, and it had long been predicted that 
the College would fail in its efforts to overcome the 
vis inertice of the Porte. They regarded Dr. Ham- 
lin's final triumph with wonder and admiration. 

Dr. Hamlin was determined to put up the college 
building himself without the aid or interference of 
any architect or builder, and I suppose that no one 
who reads his autobiography is surprised when he 
finds him undertaking this work. He would say: 
u It was just like him. He was that sort of a boy and 
man." He firmly believed that he could erect a 
better building at a less cost than any one else, and 
he undertook this Herculean task with a light 
heart. After the middle of the year he did not at- 
tempt to do any work in the College at Bebec except 
in the evening. He commenced excavations on the 
site April 7, 1869. All the teachers and students 
with many friends were present, and, after speeches 
in eleven languages, each one in turn took a spade, 
filled a barrow with earth and wheeled it away. 
In May, 1869, he received a visit from Mr. W. A. 
Booth, president of the Board of Trustees, and in 

27 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

consultation with him made some changes in his 
plans. By Monday, July 5, he was ready to lay 
the corner stone. The day was unfavorable. Mrs. 
Hamlin was very ill, and there was a pouring rain 
all the morning, but quite an assembly gathered on 
the grounds and there were appropriate addresses 
in five languages. The ceremony of laying the 
stone was performed by Hon. E. Joy Morris, the 
American minister. Sir Philip Francis, Judge of 
the Supreme Consular Court, and Canon Gribble, 
Chaplain of the British Embassy, represented Eng- 
land and made sympathetic addresses. It was 
nearly two years before the building was ready for 
occupation. During those years, while the work of 
construction was going on, Dr. Hamlin was always 
at Hissar, but one never knew where to find him. 
He might be in the water at the bottom of the well 
mending the force pump, or at the top of the build- 
ing standing on an iron girder with forty feet of 
empty space below him. He might be setting up a 
steam-engine or doctoring a horse or teaching his 
masons how to lay stone. He might be entertaining 
some Turkish gentleman or using his rich vocabu- 
lary of invective on some wild Kurdish laborer. 
He made a sort of hut for himself in a pile of lum- 
ber near the building, and you might find him there 
taking a five minutes' nap in his chair or sharing 
his meagre lunch with a tailless green lizard which 
had made friends with him. If you came at the 
right time, you might be treated to a delicious cup 
of coffee made by himself. You might see him 
losing his own fingers as he stumbled on to a buzz- 
saw or tenderly dressing the wounds of some un- 

28 



THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEC 

fortunate workman. Wherever you found him, you 
saw that his whole mind and heart was concentrated 
upon the building. He had endless difficulties, but 
was never discouraged and never daunted by any 
new and unthought-of problem which presented 
itself in the building. I think that those were the 
happiest days of his life. 

I shall have much to say of Dr. Hamlin in my 
personal recollections of the College after I came 
into it a few weeks before the close of the sixth 
year, in June, 1869, but it seems desirable to preface 
this by a brief statement of dates and details drawn 
from the correspondence of Mr. Robert and Dr. 
Hamlin, which do not directly relate to the work in 
the College and which may also supplement the 
statements in his autobiography. 

After a full discussion of the situation with Mr. 
Robert he went to America in September, 1871, to 
raise an endowment for the College, leaving his 
family in Bebec. He returned to Constantinople in 
June, 1872, and remained here until October, 1873, 
and while here he erected the Study Hall annex to 
Hamlin Hall, which was a temporary structure, but 
which served its purpose until 1906. In October, 
1873, he went to America with his family to con- 
tinue the work of raising an endowment and never 
returned. In 1877 he resigned the office of presi- 
dent of the College. 

His letters to Mr. Robert bring out still more 
strongly than his autobiography his utter aversion 
to the work of raising money, and his ill success 
strengthened this feeling; while Mr. Robert, who 
was a man of moderate means, never a millionaire, 

29 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

I believe, as the expenses of the College increased, 
was more and more impressed with the necessity 
of an endowment and with the belief that Dr. Ham- 
lin was the only man who could raise it. 

As early as August 21, 1867, Dr. Hamlin pro- 
posed to Mr. Robert that as soon as Robert College 
was well under way he should give himself to the 
founding of a college for girls at Constantinople. 
He writes: "It is not desirable that Robert College 
should remain in my hands after age begins to dim 
the eye and abate the natural force. I should then 
ruin it and I pray God in His infinite wisdom and 
mercy to keep me from it. I fear it now, but per- 
haps after a few more years I shall begin to think 
myself the only man who can carry it forward. In 
a female seminary I should not be exposed to any- 
thing of that sort. The work itself is necessary to 
the completeness of Robert College. The two in- 
stitutions should have no connection with each 
other, but naturally female education should and 
must have a certain correspondency to that of the 
other sex. This has long been in my mind, but 
the time has not yet come for more than the men- 
tioning of it." 

Dr. Hamlin pressed this plan upon Mr. Robert 
frequently in special letters and in 1874 almost per- 
suaded him to agree to his giving his time to raising 
money for this object rather than for Robert Col- 
lege. It was due in some measure to his influence 
that the Woman's Board of Missions in Boston 
took the matter up and founded a school which 
finally developed into the American College for 
Girls at Scutari, a part of Constantinople situated 

30 




CYRUS HAMLIN 



THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEC 

on the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus. Dr. Hamlin, 
however, writes to Mr. Robert in August, 1873, that 
"a girls' college in Constantinople should have no 
connection with any missionary society, but be 
governed by a corporate board like that of Robert 
College, with no woman in it, unless insisted on by 
the donor or donors and then I would weep in 
secret places over the necessity. As a general thing 
woman has not, and I pray she may never have, 
the business education that would fit her for such 
duties." 

Mr. Robert finally insisted on Dr. Hamlin's de- 
voting himself exclusively to the work of Robert 
College, and he reluctantly consented. What Mr. 
Robert thought of Dr. Hamlin at that time may be 
gathered from a letter written to me in November, 
1874. 44 If I do not greatly mistake, those who 
come after us, fifty or one hundred years hence, will 
see more clearly than we ever shall that those who 
laid the foundations of the College were guided by 
the wisdom that cometh down from above. Al- 
though Dr. Hamlin is now highly appreciated by 
those who know him best it is only an index of far 
greater honor that will be showered on his name 
in after generations." 

The following years up to 1877 were very trying 
ones to both Dr. Hamlin and Mr. Robert. Dr. 
Hamlin had labored in vain to raise an endowment, 
and now he felt that the great crisis of revolution 
and war in Turkey had made his task hopeless. 
No one who has had experience in such work can 
fail to sympathize with his feeling that he could 
endure it no longer, and, this given up, he felt that 

31 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

he had no place and no work in America. Mr. 
Robert was broken down in health. The troubles 
in Constantinople threatened the very existence of 
the College, and the burden of expense, with yearly 
increasing deficits, was greater than he was able to 
meet. No one who has ever found himself weighted 
with a burden too heavy for him to carry, but which 
could not be thrown off, can fail to sympathize with 
him. Rightly or wrongly, he felt that, in the interest 
of the College, it was not wise for Dr. Hamlin to 
return to Constantinople at that time. The ques- 
tion was discussed between them several times, and 
in June, 1877, Dr. Hamlin resigned the place of 
president and accepted an appointment for one 
year in Bangor Theological Seminary. He and Mr. 
Robert kept up a constant correspondence during 
the year, and October 23, 1877, Mr. Robert wrote 
to Dr. Long, then acting as director of the College, 
"I suppose that the faculty at Bangor will wish to 
make his appointment permanent, but I have not 
much fear that he will stay if the College needs his 
services next year, as I hope that it will." 

The office of president was not filled until June, 
1878, just as Mr. Robert was leaving for Europe, 
broken down in health, to die a few months later 
in Paris. Dr. Hamlin remained in Bangor to the 
sincere regret of his old associates in the College at 
Constantinople. 



32 



CHAPTER III 



LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEC. 1869-1871 

I came to Constantinople in 1858 as treasurer of 
the Missions of the American Board, and up to 
1869 my connection with the College was only in- 
cidental. When Dr. Hamlin went to America in 
1860 he left me in charge of a well to be dug on the 
Kourou Tcheshme lot. After going down about 
one hundred feet through solid rock without finding 
water I gave it up, and there it remains to this day. 

When Dr. Hamlin was left alone by the resigna- 
tion of the two professors, 1865, I taught several 
classes until the end of the college year. When he 
was trying to secure permission to build at Hissar 
I was living in Pera, and for about two years I had 
charge of all the negotiations with the American 
Legation and with the British Embassy. We de- 
pended chiefly at that time upon Lord Lyons, who 
had just come from Washington, who was an en- 
thusiastic friend of America and who saw clearly 
that Robert College would strengthen English in- 
fluence in Turkey. Dr. Hamlin was so disgusted 
with what he felt to be a want of sympathy on the 
part of the American minister that he had broken 
off personal relations with him, and the situation 
was farther complicated by the fact that the min- 
ister and his first secretary and dragoman were not 
on speaking terms. Yet all the official communica- 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

tion with the Porte had to be carried on through 
the American Legation. Happily I was on good 
terms with all the parties concerned. Dr. Hamlin 
told me what he wanted and I went first to the 
minister and got his promise to act; then I went 
to the dragoman and persuaded him to act on the 
same line, in both cases listening to the complaints 
which the one had to make against the other. It 
was the most curious experience that I ever had in 
diplomacy. In 1868 Dr. Hamlin resumed direct 
intercourse with the American minister. 

I have already mentioned the aid given by Mr. 
George D. Morgan of New York. In January, 
1868, Mr. Morgan and his family met at their 
hotel in Constantinople Mr. C. C. Coffin of Boston, 
the well-known war correspondent, who was a 
friend of mine. Mr. Morgan was ill, but Mr. 
Coffin brought the family to a prayer meeting at 
my house in Pera, and the next morning I went to 
see what I could do for Mr. Morgan. In the course 
of our conversation I told him the story of Dr. 
Hamlin's conflict with the Turkish government. 
He was so much interested that he gave up a day 
to go to Hissar with me and see the site. I took him 
to Bebec to call on Dr. Hamlin, and there he care- 
fully examined all the documents connected with 
the case. He told me that evening that he should 
not return to America before May or June, but that 
he would make it his first business after his arrival 
to go to Washington and settle this matter with 
Mr. Seward. He kept his promise, and this was the 
beginning of the end of the struggle for permission 
to build the College. 

34 



LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEG 

I left Constantinople in the spring of 1868 with 
no expectation of ever returning to work here. I 
had other plans in view. In the winter of 1868-69 
I was at my father's house on a visit, when one 
morning I received a telegram from Chicago ask- 
ing me to take charge of a church there, a letter 
from two gentlemen in New York offering to fur- 
nish all the money needed for the carrying out of 
the plans which I had in view when I left Constanti- 
nople, and a letter from Mr. Robert, who wrote that 
it was absolutely necessary for me to go to Constan- 
tinople to look after the work of the College while 
Dr. Hamlin was engaged in erecting a building at 
Hissar. I declined the invitation to Chicago and 
went to New York to see Mr. Robert and to consult 
my friends there. I got their consent to postpone 
my work in New York for two years, and agreed 
with Mr. Robert to go and assist Dr. Hamlin for 
that length of time if he wished me to come, know- 
ing as he did that I had no special preparation for 
such work. He had expressed some doubt about 
my health and my willingness to come, but ap- 
proved of Mr. Robert's proposal fully when he 
found that another man whom he had invited had 
declined to go. I had no thought of making this 
my life-work, but I believed in the College. I loved 
and admired Dr. Hamlin and I was willing to sacri- 
fice two years to help him out. I suppose that the 
one thing which led Mr. Robert to insist upon my 
going was the fact that my wife was Dr. Hamlin's 
eldest daughter. 

Dr. Hamlin telegraphed me to come at once, and 
we arrived in Constantinople in season to be present 

35 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

at the laying of the corner stone of the new building 
at Hissar, July 5, 1869, and went to live in one of 
the college buildings at Bebec just opposite the 
main building. The College was still in session. 
Dr. Hamlin writes, "We welcome the Washburns 
with great rejoicing, for all these difficulties so 
absorb my time that the college year would wind 
up badly without him." My official position was 
that of Professor of Philosophy. 

Robert College in 1869 was a unique institution. 
It occupied an old wooden house, built in 1798, on 
the side of a steep hill in the midst of the village of 
Bebec. It was entered from a court, with three 
stories below this level and three above. At the op- 
posite end of the court was the kitchen. Dr. Ham- 
lin's family lived in the story on the level, and the 
students occupied the rest of the building. They 
also occupied part of a house on the opposite side of 
the street which Dr. Hamlin had built some years 
before for a flour mill and bakery. I lived in the 
upper story of this house. The main building was 
very picturesque, but there were very few conven- 
iences in either house, and what there were were 
chiefly the handiwork of the president. Not a penny 
which could be saved was ever wasted on the place, 
and the College was practically self-supporting. It 
was generally known as Dr. Hamlin's College. 
There was one professor when I came who had 
already resigned and who left in July. There were 
two American tutors, Grosvenor and Wilcox, and 
four assistant teachers for French and the native 
languages. Dr. Hamlin was the College. If the tu- 
tors were wise and tactful enough to understand and 

36 



LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEG 

carry out his ideas, they were a help. Sometimes 
they were a hindrance. There were no regular col- 
lege classes. Every student was treated as though 
he were the only one and given such studies as were 
adapted to his capacity. Every year those who were 
advanced were selected and formed into a class to 
graduate at the end of the year. With the small 
number of students then in the College this system 
worked very well. We have had no graduates who 
have distinguished themselves in later life more than 
those who were under Dr. Hamlin's personal influ- 
ence. He had a marvelous power of impressing his 
own personality on his students. He was a great 
teacher and he lived with the students, ate at the 
same table, and managed, in spite of the variety of 
his occupations, to see much of them. He believed 
in righteous anger and sometimes came down upon 
a student like a cyclone, but behind this there was a 
tenderness of heart and a sense of humor which I 
think invariably won the affection of the students. 

I have found among my papers an old document 
in Dr. Hamlin's handwriting which illustrates his 
methods of discipline, which were often as unique as 
this, and almost always successful. It relates to two 
brothers, Italians, who were always quarreling. 

Articles of Peace between 
Silvio and Pierre Biscuchia terminating 
the War of 1867 & 1868 
March 7, 1868 

The two high contracting parties agree : 
1. That in order to preserve peace, amity and 
good will and to confirm a strict brotherhood to all 

37 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 



future generations one shall not call the other an ass 
or a dog or a pig or a thief, robber, rowdy, pezevenk 
or other opprobrious epithet in Italian, French, 
Turkish, Greek, English, Bulgarian, Armenian or 
any other language spoken at the tower of Babel or 
since that day. 

2. Silvio shall in no case strike Pierre nor Pierre 
Silvio. 

3. If either is guilty of any injustice toward the 
other the injured party shall state it to the Principal 
in writing and judgment shall be rendered accord- 
ing to the evidence. 

Witnesses : (Signed) 
Gustave Caze. Silvio Biscuchia. 

Henri Coidan. Pierre Biscuchia. 

Yanko Agelasto. 

These boys left the College soon after, and some 
years later one killed the other in a quarrel. 

He was as supreme in the kitchen as in the school- 
room and generally superintended the making of 
the morning coffee himself. Although he knew 
nothing of book-keeping he managed the financial 
affairs of the College with success, as he had man- 
aged his bakery and laundry in the time of the war. 

About three-fourths of the students boarded in 
the college, 35 in all. They studied in the study 
hall, slept in dormitories, 12 or 15 together, bringing 
their own bedding, ate in the dining-room, played in 
the small court, made their ablutions in a small 
lavatory or in the open court, got exercise by walk- 
ing and occasional games on the hills above Bebec. 
They had prayers conducted by Dr. Hamlin at 

38 



LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEC 

6.30 in the morning and any student who failed 
to be present lost his breakfast. Lunch was at 
12.30 and dinner at 6. The study hours were 4 
in the morning, 2.30 in the afternoon and 1.30 in 
the evening. Every student was in bed and all 
lights extinguished at 10. I think that Dr. Hamlin 
himself seldom slept more than four hours in the 
night, with some five-minute naps during the day. 
Each dormitory had a tutor's room next it, and the 
tutors were expected to keep a surveillance over the 
students at all times, but especially in the study hall 
and the dormitories. No student could leave the 
bnilding without special permission. 

Most of the boarders at this time were Bulga- 
rians, and for twenty years the great majority of the 
graduates were of this nationality. During the pre- 
vious decade the Bulgarians had awakened from 
the sleep of centuries. They had thrown off the 
yoke of the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople and 
began to dream of escaping from that of the Turk. 
It was a nation of peasants, held in ignorance by a 
double bondage. When they began to seek for en- 
lightenment their attention was first directed to 
Robert College by Dr. Long, then an American 
missionary in Bulgaria and later a professor in the 
College. Although Dr. Hamlin had interested him- 
self in the Bulgarians in 1856 and used his influence 
to have missions established in Bulgaria, it does 
not appear from their correspondence that either he 
or Mr. Robert had ever thought of them as possible 
students in the College, and Mr. Robert died with- 
out knowing that he had played an important part 
in founding a new state in Europe. 

39 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

When I reached Constantinople Dr. Hamlin had 
been absorbed for some time in the work of building 
at Hissar, and, having no head, the College had 
fallen into confusion; but it was soon reduced to 
order, the examinations were satisfactory and Dr. 
Hamlin looked upon the Commencement exercises 
as a great success. Five Bulgarians and one Ger- 
man were graduated and eighty persons attended 
the exercises. Dr. Hamlin writes to Mr. Robert 
August 6, 1869 : " Our Commencement was the best 
we have ever had and left a very excellent impres- 
sion. The orations of the graduating class were 
sober, manly, dignified, earnest and full of Chris- 
tian thought. I would have wished you no greater 
luxury than listening to them. Mr. Washburn will 
put things in shape and keep them there. You will 
enjoy having a business man to correspond with 
instead of a busy man. I think he will do grandly." 

The seventh college year opened September 15, 
1869. Dr. Hamlin continued in charge of the 
boarding department. Otherwise he was absorbed 
from the very early morning until evening at Hissar, 
but always ready to give me advice. Two new tu- 
tors arrived from America, Wetmore of Michigan 
University and Anderson of Hamilton College, and 
together with Mr. Grosvenor they entered into the 
work with enthusiasm and whole-hearted devotion. 
There were six assistant teachers. 

October 6 there were present 53 boarders and 18 
day scholars from the vicinity of the College, making 
71 in all, of whom 35 were Bulgarians, 10 Greeks, 
8 Armenians, 6 Americans, 4 English, 2 Dutch, 2 
Syrians, 2 Christian Osmanlis, 1 Persian prince, 1 

40 



LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEG 

German. Dr. Hamlin could pick out only one stu- 
dent who could be called a Senior, an Armenian, but 
I managed during the year to organize a Junior class 
of five Bulgarians. 

Up to this time the Sabbath services at the College 
had been in charge of Rev. Dr. Schauffler, who had 
been for many years the pastor of a church made up 
of missionaries and foreign residents, which held 
regular services in the building which Dr. Hamlin 
had rented for the College. The students attended 
this service. Dr. Schauffler resigned this work at 
the end of 1879 on account of feeble health. The 
College then became responsible for the services. 
The preaching was done by Dr. Hamlin and myself 
with what help we could get from the missionaries. 
The Bible classes had always been a part of the col- 
lege work, and Dr. Hamlin was nowhere more suc- 
cessful than in this department. 

In March the number of students had increased 
to eighty- three, but an epidemic of measles, brought 
into the College by a day scholar, created a panic, 
and thirty boys, mostly day scholars, left, some of 
them not to return. None of the cases proved fatal, 
but it was a serious interruption to our work. Mr. 
Robert was seriously ill in New York at this time 
and came to Europe to regain his health. This also 
was a source of great anxiety to us. We were 
greatly refreshed by a visit from Professor Park of 
Andover and Professors Smith and Hitchcock of 
New York. Their enthusiastic interest in the Col- 
lege and in the building at Hissar gave us all new 
courage. I do not think that a gift of five thousand 
dollars would have done us as much good. They 

41 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

were great and good men and their hearty indorse- 
ment of our work, which many of the missionaries 
looked upon unfavorably, confirmed our faith in it. 
Professor Park had been lamed by the kick of a 
horse, but he insisted on going to the new building, 
and Dr. Hamlin had him hauled up the hill in a 
Turkish cart drawn by two buffaloes. Those who 
remember Professor Park can imagine how he 
looked and the play of humor between him and 
Professor Hitchcock. 

On Sunday, June 5, 1870, Constantinople was 
visited by a conflagration which destroyed a large 
part of the quarter of Pera, consuming over eight 
thousand houses, destroying at least one thousand 
lives and leaving some fifty thousand people home- 
less. Among the buildings destroyed was the palace 
of the English Embassy and many of the best 
houses in the city. No one ever attempted to esti- 
mate carefully the pecuniary loss. The homes of 
three of our students were burned and the parents 
of several others lost most of their property. Dr. 
Hamlin anticipated such a rise in the cost of ma- 
terial and in labor as would greatly increase the 
cost of his building, but the calamity was so great 
that the opposite result followed. 

The year closed with only one graduate, an Ar- 
menian, but we put the Juniors all on the stage with 
orations and had a very successful Commencement. 
Dr. Hamlin left his work at Hissar to attend the 
examinations and wrote to Mr. Robert: "The 
examinations were good and gratifying. The prog- 
ress of the year has been decided and hopeful for 
the future." The financial results of the year were 

42 



LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEC 

equally satisfactory, as the income was sufficient to 
pay the expenses. But I called Mr. Robert's atten- 
tion to the fact that this could only be hoped for so 
long as we had no permanent faculty and depended 
on cheap and transient tutors. Dr. Hamlin had en- 
couraged Mr. Robert to believe that it was not only 
possible to make the College self-supporting, but 
that the profits would accumulate rapidly and fur- 
nish the means to erect additional buildings. He 
wrote to Mr. Robert that in the new building with 
250 students, no more teachers would be needed 
than with 80 students, the number then in the Col- 
lege. It will be seen that this optimistic view has 
not been justified in our experience. A college 
without professors would be an anomaly anywhere, 
and to-day with 400 students we find 12 professors 
and 28 other teachers none too many for our work. 

The eighth college year opened in the old build- 
ing at Bebec in September, 1870, with 103 students, 
which increased during the year to 100 boarders and 
35 day scholars, when we moved into the new build- 
ing at Hissar. We had managed at the close of the 
previous year to organize another class so that we 
began with a regular programme of studies and 
Sophomore, Junior and Senior classes, the balance 
of students being more or less irregular. 

Mr. and Mrs. Robert came to Constantinople in 
the middle of October and spent a month here. 
They went from here to Syria and visited the col- 
lege which had been opened under the direction of 
Dr. Daniel Bliss at Beirut. The Beirut College in- 
terested Mr. Robert because it had been founded on 
somewhat different principles from that at Constan- 

43 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

tinople. It was closely connected with the Mission 
and was distinctively Protestant, taking the name 
Syrian Protestant College. It was largely under the 
control of a local board of managers. It had a medi- 
cal department in view, which later became the 
most important branch of its work. The language 
of the college was Arabic, this being the common 
language of all nationalities in Syria, but after some 
years of experience this was changed to English. I 
regret that I have not in my possession and have 
never seen any of the letters written by Mr. Robert 
at the time of his visit to Constantinople and must 
depend upon my memory for everything connected 
with it. Mr. and Mrs. Robert spent most of the 
time that they were with us in the old mill house at 
Bebec, but Dr. Hamlin naturally saw much more of 
Mr. Robert than I did. He spent almost every day 
with Dr. Hamlin at Hissar and interested himself 
in all the details of the building, although he did 
not approve of the way in which Dr. Hamlin often 
exposed his life in various kinds of manual labor. 
It was not long after Mr. Robert left that he fell 
against a buzz saw and lost two of his fingers. 
However, Mr. Robert told me that he had never en- 
joyed anything more than these days spent at His- 
sar with Dr. Hamlin. He took time also to see 
everything at the College in Bebec — to make the 
acquaintance of the teachers and students and in- 
vestigate every detail of every department. He did 
not hesitate to criticise and advise in regard to the 
work at Bebec or at Hissar, and so far as Bebec 
was concerned his criticisms were generally wise 
and timely, although it was sometimes impossible 

44 



LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEG 

in our straitened circumstances to correct the 
deficiencies which he discovered. He also saw the 
missionaries and interested himself in them and 
their work, and drew out such criticisms of the Col- 
lege as they had to make. 

The Grand Vizier, Aali Pasha, lived at Bebec 
and naturally knew of Mr. Robert's presence here. 
He informed the Sultan, who proposed to confer on 
Mr. Robert the decoration of the Medjidie, in dia- 
monds. The Grand Vizier invited Mr. Robert to 
call on him and informed him of the will of the 
Sultan in most complimentary language. Mr. Rob- 
ert expressed his high appreciation of the honor 
but declined to accept the decoration, as something 
altogether foreign to American ideas. The Grand 
Vizier took it very kindly, but there was a difference 
of opinion among friends of the College here as to 
the wisdom of his act. This official recognition of 
the College by the Sultan would have had its value 
in later years, and it is not exactly a gracious thing 
to refuse an honor of this sort, or a possible thing to 
make Turkish officials understand the motives of 
such a refusal. Still there is no evidence that any 
positive harm came of it in this case, and it would 
be difficult to imagine anything more incongruous 
than Mr. Robert wearing a Turkish decoration on 
his breast in a New York drawing-room. 

There can be no doubt that this visit of Mr. and 
Mrs. Robert to Constantinople confirmed him in 
his determination to support the College to the ut- 
most extent of his ability. 

Not long after his departure we had a visit from 
General Sheridan, who was fresh from the great 

45 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

battlefields of France and enough of an American 
to interest himself in the peaceful work of an Ameri- 
can college on the Bosphorus. He told me that, 
although he had seen the most bloody battles of the 
war, near Metz, he had seen no such desperate 
fighting as took place on several occasions during 
our Civil War in America. 

After Mr. Robert left us we plunged into a sea of 
troubles, such as are incident to such an institution, 
but which were new to me. First came a most trying 
case of discipline involving two of the most promi- 
nent students, one English and one Persian, in a 
gross offense against morality. There was nothing 
to be done but to expel them both, although one 
belonged to a Christian family who were among 
our best friends. Later developments proved that 
this young man was a hopeless degenerate; but I 
felt then, as I have felt quite as strongly ever since, 
that to expel a student is a humiliating confession of 
failure on the part of the teacher and in some cases 
at least an evidence that the teacher has failed to do 
his duty. 

Early in January we had an outbreak of typhoid 
fever in the College, due, as I believed, to the over- 
crowding of the old building at Bebec, although Dr. 
Hamlin was unwilling to admit this. Many were ill 
and there were four serious cases. The worst case 
was that of a young German boy from Trieste. We 
took him into our house, and Mrs. Washburn and I 
took care of him for many weeks. He sank so low 
that for two days he was unconscious and lay like 
dead, but he rallied again and finally recovered his 
health, to our great joy, as did all the rest of our 

46 



LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEC 



patients. But for a time the College was a hospital, 
with no doctor within five miles of us and no trained 
nurses. It was a great strain on all the teachers. 

It was partly on this account that Dr. Hamlin in- 
sisted upon moving into the new building at Hissar 
before it was finished. I think that no one else ap- 
proved of it, but the result justified Dr. Hamlin's 
decision. There is a common proverb current here, 
"If you build a stone house, rent it to your enemy 
the first year, to your friend the second and live in it 
yourself the third." Every one prophesied evil of 
the dampness of the walls, and many would not 
send their sons on this account, but in fact the 
health of the College was perfect after our removal. 
The only inconvenience was the intolerable noise 
made by the forty or fifty workmen in the building. 
Dr. Hamlin's family moved into the building at the 
same time with the students. It was May 17, 1871, 
that the new building was occupied ; and the change 
made in perfect weather from the narrow quarters 
in the midst of the village of Bebec to the hill-top at 
Hissar, the most beautiful site on the Bosphorus 
and one unsurpassed by any in the world, more 
than compensated for all the inconvenience of our 
unfinished building — and the bare, unimproved 
grounds, cumbered with workshops and piles of 
rock and unprotected with walls. The number of 
students rose to 130 before the end of the year. The 
public opening was postponed to July 4, just two 
years from the laying of the corner stone. It so hap- 
pened that Ex-Secretary Seward, on his way around 
the world, was in Constantinople at this time, and 
he came to the College to take the principal part in 

47 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

the opening exercises. Blacque Bey, who was the 
Turkish minister at Washington at the critical time 
when Mr. Morgan brought the college question 
before Mr. Seward with such success, was also 
there. Mr. Seward was a physical wreck, but he 
made a noble address, and his presence on this oc- 
casion impressed the Turkish government and all 
Constantinople with the idea that the College was 
under the special patronage as well as protection of 
the government of the United States. I suppose it 
was one of the happiest days in Dr. Hamlin's life — 
a day of triumph in what he believed to be a great 
and good cause and for which he had battled for ten 
years. 

The Commencement exercises a month later were 
held in the study hall which occupied the northeast 
corner of the first story of the new building which I 
shall henceforth speak of as Hamlin Hall. Up to 
that time there had been 9 graduates, 2 in 1868, 6 in 
1869, 1 in 1870, — 6 Bulgarians, 2 Armenians and 1 
German. Mr. Petco Gorbanoff remained several 
years in the College as instructor in Bulgarian and 
since that time has been a prominent citizen of Bul- 
garia, a lawyer by profession, and often a member 
of the National Assembly. Mr. Hagopos Djedjizian 
has been a Protestant preacher and an instructor or 
professor of Armenian in the College since 1869. Of 
the next class Mr. Jordan Economoff and Mr. 
Stephan Thomoff studied theology in Drew Theo- 
logical Seminary in America and have since been 
Protestant clergymen in Bulgaria. Mr. Theodore 
Djabaroff has been a prominent official in Bulgaria. 
Mr. Peter Mattheoff has occupied high ministerial 

48 



LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEC 

and diplomatic positions in the Bulgarian govern- 
ment after having been in the British postal service, 
and after having been engaged for the British Mu- 
seum in explorations in Babylonia with George 
Smith. Mr. Diran Garabetian of 1870 has been 
an official of the Imperial Ottoman Bank ever since 
his graduation, and Mr. Naiden Nicoloff also a 
banker. 

The class of 1871 were all Bulgarians, and no 
more distinguished class has ever been graduated 
from the College. Stephan Panaretoff has been in- 
structor or professor of Bulgarian and Slavic in the 
College ever since his graduation, and Bulgaria 
has produced no more distinguished scholar and 
teacher. Mr. Stoiloff and Mr. Slaveikoff were both 
teachers in the College for a time. Constantine 
Stoiloff was the ablest statesman in Bulgaria until 
he died in 1901. Ivan Slaveikoff was one of the 
leading literary men in Bulgaria and held many 
high offices during his life until he died in 1901, as 
Minister of Public Instruction. Ivan S. Gueshoff is 
still a leading politician and just now diplomatic 
agent of Bulgaria in Constantinople, as he has been 
in Paris and Vienna. Petco Taptcheleshloff has 
been and is a merchant. 

I was not present on July 4 nor at the Com- 
mencement. I had left for America June 20. The 
two years which I had agreed to give to Robert 
College while Dr. Hamlin was engaged in building 
had been completed and the building was occupied. 
Family affairs and other considerations made it 
necessary for me to go to America. But Mr. Robert 
and the trustees in New York and Dr. Hamlin in 

49 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

Constantinople urged me to accept a permanent 
position in the College, especially in view of the fact 
that it had been arranged for Dr. Hamlin to go to 
America in the autumn to raise an endowment for 
the College. Dr. Hamlin knew from two years' ex- 
perience that I could never manage a college on his 
plan and declared often that he could never manage 
one on mine; but he thought that I had learned 
enough from him and had caught enough of his 
spirit, to make me the only possible candidate to 
fill his place while he was in America. I accepted 
the appointment after much hesitation, because I 
had become deeply interested in the College and 
because I believed, after two years of trial, that, in 
spite of our differences, we could work together in 
harmony — peacefully agreeing to differ as we 
always had. I did not forget that I had come to the 
College without any experience in teaching or in the 
administration of a school of any kind and that most 
of what I knew at the end of two years I had learned 
from Dr. Hamlin. Our differences grew out of our 
characters. He was an original genius, I was not. 
He abhorred all the trammels and details of system- 
atic organization, which he declared belonged to 
Jesuits. To me such system seemed to be essential. 
We got on together because he tolerated my system 
and I was glad to have him work outside of it in any 
way he pleased. 



50 



CHAPTER IV 



NINTH COLLEGE YEAR. 1871-1872 

Dr. Hamlin left for America September 30, 1871, 
leaving his family in the house which I had occupied 
at Bebec, while I moved into Hamlin Hall, occupy- 
ing the suite of rooms in the second story on the 
south side of the building, where we lived for twenty 
years. 

A great change had taken place in the political 
situation at Constantinople due to the Franco- 
Prussian War. It was illustrated by a request made 
to me by an Armenian merchant at this time. 
"Please excuse my son from studying any more 
French, that is played out. Let him study the 
Prussian language instead." Since the Crimean 
War French influence, and under its protection 
Jesuit influence, had been supreme at Constanti- 
nople. Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz had visited Napoleon 
III at Paris, and the Empress, after opening the 
Suez Canal, had been entertained by the Sultan at 
Constantinople. The great Lycee of Galata Serai 
had been opened, with a staff furnished by the 
Emperor but supported by the Sultan, to compete 
with Robert College; and Dr. Hamlin had found all 
this influence arrayed against him when he was seek- 
ing permission to build at Hissar. All this was 
changed by the war and the fall of the empire. 
It was some years before Germany gained much 

51 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

influence here, but Russia came to the front and 
England regained much of her old prestige in the 
eyes of Turkish statesmen if not with Sultan Abd- 
ul-Aziz himself. The men who deposed him a few 
years later were in league with England. Russia 
took the place of France as the chief enemy of the 
College and used her influence to turn Bulgarian 
students from Robert College to Russia for their 
education. Unfortunately for Bulgaria she opened 
the way for a boy in Tirnova, where Dr. Long was 
a missionary, and a friend of this boy, whose name 
was Stambouloff, to go to Russia for a free educa- 
tion in a theological school. If he had come to 
Robert College he would have had other ideas of 
government than those which he learned in Russia. 
He was probably the strongest man that Bulgaria 
has produced and saved Bulgaria from Russian 
domination; but so far as the internal government 
of the country was concerned he too often fell back 
upon Russian methods. When a student he was 
expelled from Russia as a nihilist but secretly em- 
ployed by the Russian Embassy as a sort of brigand 
revolutionist against the Turks, before the massa- 
cres, and came to the front as a great leader after 
the fall of Prince Alexander. 

The College opened September 15 with four 
college classes and a preparatory class, with but 
few students ; but by the first of October there were 
135 boarders and 30 day scholars. Mr. Grosvenor 
had left for America and in his place two new tutors, 
Mr. Forbes from Amherst College and Mr. Richard- 
son from Hob art, had come, making with Mr. 
Anderson and Mr. Wetmore a most efficient staff of 

52 



NINTH COLLEGE YEAR 

American teachers. We have never had better men 
and they have all distinguished themselves since. 
I can never forget what I owe and what the College 
owes to their devoted service. 

The cause of so few students entering the College 
was the outbreak of an epidemic of cholera in the 
city. The horrors of the great epidemic of 1865 
were fresh in the minds of all, and students were 
afraid to come. It was a wonder that we had so 
many. The first cases occurred before Dr. Hamlin 
left for America, and he hesitated about starting. It 
was while he was still detained in the quarantine at 
Trieste that I was roused from my bed by a mes- 
senger from Bebec, saying that Willie Hamlin had 
the cholera. It was a terribly stormy night, and it 
took me three quarters of an hour to reach them. 
I found the case far advanced, and no doctor could 
be found. Six years before in that very room my 
own son Harry had died of cholera in my arms. I 
fought the disease in this case until six o'clock in 
the morning, made all the arrangements for his im- 
mediate burial and disinfecting the house and came 
back to Hissar more dead than alive to go to bed 
and fight off an attack of cholera myself. Had I re- 
mained until the authorities knew of the case I 
should have been kept there some days in quaran- 
tine. It was a terrible shock to Mrs. Hamlin, but 
happily no other case occurred in the family. 
Within a few days I was called to three other cases 
in the families at Hissar. All died. There was 
something peculiar about this epidemic, unlike that 
of 1865. Nearly every case proved fatal, with treat- 
ment which in 1865 was generally successful. I had 

53 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

a second slight attack myself after one of these 
visits, and we had some three hundred cases of stu- 
dents with threatening premonitory symptoms, but 
every student was carefully watched, and we had 
no fully developed case of cholera in the College. 
Many thought that we ought to suspend and send 
the students home ; but they and their parents had 
such faith in us that, so far as I can remember, only 
a single student was withdrawn. At one time Mr. 
Wetmore had an attack when spending a night at 
Bebec, but I got to him at once and he recovered. 
Those were weeks when everything looked dark 
about us, but we put our trust in God and kept right 
on with the required routine of college work, and 
He did not fail us. The epidemic lasted about four 
months. There were about four thousand deaths 
in the city besides soldiers and sailors. The frantic 
attempts of the Turkish authorities to deal with 
the epidemic on modern principles frightened the 
people more than the disease itself. It was then 
that they first heard of microbes, and Turkish doc- 
tors stuffed chloride of lime into the mouths, noses 
and ears of their patients to keep the microbes from 
crawling out and attacking others. 

Perhaps the most important event of the year was 
the purchase of the land between the College and 
the village of Hissar. It belonged to Achmet Vefik 
Pasha of whom Dr. Hamlin had bought the college 
lot of about six acres. This one contained about 
twelve acres, and included the well which was our 
only water supply, besides the cistern of Hamlin 
Hall. Dr. Hamlin had written at length to Mr. 
Robert urging him to authorize the purchase by 

54 



NINTH COLLEGE YEAR 

telegraph. After Dr. Hamlin's departure a long 
letter came from Mr. Robert forbidding the pur- 
chase, but here appeared one of Mr. Robert's most 
admirable characteristics. Although the most posi- 
tive of men in his judgments, he hesitated about im- 
posing his authority upon us, even where it was a 
question of money which must come out of his 
pocket. He had held the letter over a day and then 
added a postscript which left the final decision to 
me. 1 I bought the land at once for thirteen thou- 
sand two hundred dollars. On this land to-day 
stand Theodorus Hall and six professors' houses. 
Achmet Vefik Pasha was in no special need of 
money at that time, but he was a warm friend of the 
College, and the price which he asked was very 
reasonable. He was the most interesting Turk 
whom I have ever known — a great linguist, famil- 
iar with sixteen languages and with the classic 
authors of all Europe, had held the highest offices 
in the government, was a great reformer and an 

1 In regard to this postscript Mr. Robert wrote to me October 30, 
1871: "I think I see clearly the hand of God in suggesting those 
lines. I had conferred with Mr. Booth on the subject . . . and we 
both decided it was not best to make the purchase. I went to Throgs 
Neck that evening feeling that we had done right, but thinking and 
praying over it, it occurred to me that I had never given Dr. Hamlin 
positive instruction as to anything, though I had several times 
differed from him, saying to myself why should I do so in this case. 
I name it because I have had the most pleasant emotions since read- 
ing your letter advising the purchase and cannot forbear expressing 
my feelings, for I have often during the past six weeks asked our 
Heavenly Father to guide all interested in the matter to such action 
as would be most for His glory, and my conviction is strong that in 
this thing we have all been directed by wisdom from above." 

55 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

honest man, — a very rare thing for a Turkish offi- 
cial; but his ideas of government were altogether 
oriental and I think that Haroon-al-Rashid was his 
ideal for a sovereign. He lived very near the Col- 
lege, and I spent many evenings with him. One I 
shall never forget. I found there a German savant, 
and they were discussing the inspiration of the 
Bible. I declined to take part and listened. The 
nominal Christian was denying it, and the Moham- 
medan defended it quite as though he had been a 
professor in a Protestant theological seminary. I 
was amazed, and the next day I went to ask him 
where he had studied theology. He laughed one of 
his hearty laughs and said, "Oh! when I was 
ambassador in Paris I lived next door to Renan, and 
we discussed religious questions almost every day." 
He died some years ago, a poor man; his family has 
disappeared, and the very house in which he lived 
has been pulled down and sold for firewood. His 
magnificent library, the best in Constantinople, was 
scattered, — partly stolen and partly sold to pay 
debts. 

It is perhaps worth mentioning that in February, 
1872, Nature favored us with an exhibition of the 
Aurora Borealis which surpassed everything that I 
have ever seen. For hours the heavens were as red 
as blood, great waves of light pouring down from a 
corona at the zenith and coming up from the hori- 
zon. It was the more remarkable as we seldom see 
anything of these displays here, and it made a great 
impression upon our students, as well as upon the 
superstitious people of the city. 

We had some very interesting visitors during the 

56 



NINTH COLLEGE YEAR 

year. First Professor North of Hamilton College, 
"the old Greek" as he was called by his students, 
and one who was greatly trusted by Mr. Robert. 
Many of our best tutors we owed to his recommen- 
dation. Three of them were here at the time of his 
visit. He was very enthusiastic about the College, 
and I have no doubt that his report of it was a great 
encouragement to Mr. Robert at a time when he 
specially needed it — when he was reluctantly giv- 
ing up his school on Lookout Mountain that he 
might concentrate his efforts upon Robert College. 

Later came General Sherman and Lieutenant, 
now General, Grant — Prince Grant as he was 
called by the Turkish newspapers, his father being 
at that time President of the United States. Gen- 
eral Sherman was the guest of the Sultan, and he 
brought with him to the College the staff of pashas 
who were in attendance on him. He made an ad- 
mirable address to the students and made it appar- 
ent to the Sultan and to all the city that Robert Col- 
lege was an institution honored by the government 
of the United States. Such support by such a man 
was invaluable to us. Later came Mr. Remington, 
of whom I shall write in connection with the Com- 
mencement exercises. 

One of the questions brought up by Mr. Robert 
during this year was that of corporal punishment, 
which he objected to. Dr. Hamlin had flogged 
students publicly for gross offenses and considered 
this a proper punishment, and I had been so far in- 
fluenced by Dr. Hamlin's example that in the earlier 
years of my administration I did sometimes resort 
to forcible measures in extreme cases even with 

57 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

older students, and some amusing stories are current 
among the alumni of my punishments. For a man 
as big and strong as I was it was not unnatural to 
meet resistance sometimes with force. I did once 
throw a Turk down stairs, who had intruded into 
a dormitory after having been ordered out of the 
building, and some students did feel the weight of 
my heavy oak cane when they were riotous. Look- 
ing back upon it now, I am inclined to feel that in 
those earlier years something of this kind was nec- 
essary ; but as the College came to be a recognized 
power in the world its moral influence increased so 
much, that physical force was no longer needed to 
maintain discipline. In later years I never resorted 
to it with college students. But I have always be- 
lieved that whipping was a punishment well fitted 
for the younger boys in the Preparatory Depart- 
ment in a certain class of offenses. Only I insisted 
that it should be administered by the president in 
private, not publicly nor by any other teacher, and 
solemnly. There were ten cases during this college 
year where such punishment was administered. In 
the later years I found that a public reprimand at 
morning prayers was one of the most effective of 
punishments, only it was necessary to resort to this 
as a rare punishment, and for serious offenses. If 
it had been common it would have been useless. 
The most difficult cases to manage were those in 
which I had to settle quarrels between students, 
especially when they were of different nationalities, 
to be an absolutely just judge between them, and 
to so far satisfy both parties that there would be no 
further trouble. 

58 




GEORGE WASHBURN 



NINTH COLLEGE YEAR 

In May, 1872, I was appointed by the trustees 
Director of the College, which did not disturb the 
position of Dr. Hamlin as president, and was 
equivalent to the position of vice-president, giving 
me full authority during his absence. The title of 
director was chosen as one that would be better 
understood in Constantinople. 

Dr. Hamlin reached Constantinople June 17 on 
his return from America. His special purpose in re- 
turning was to erect a study hall building and two 
professors' houses. He was greatly impressed by 
the enthusiastic reception which was given to him 
by the College. He writes to Mr. Robert, "It was a 
most unexpected and enthusiastic affair." A week 
later he writes in regard to his eight months in 
America: "I have been able, some way or other, 
to secure a good hearing, but in the very crisis of the 
work, the getting of the money, I have failed. I 
have learned some things I never dreamed of as 
possible, and now it remains to be seen what success 
God will give to another year's deliberate and con- 
secutive effort. If I can raise an endowment of 
thirty thousand dollars a year I am willing to give 
four years to it." 

Dr. Hamlin's failure to get money is a mystery to 
me. 1 Since that day I have had long and repeated 

1 In a letter to me Mr. Robert gives the following reasons for Dr. 
Hamlin's failure. 1st. The low state of religion in the churches. 
2d. Humanitarian efforts. These were stimulated by the war and 
since then the sympathies of benevolent men have run in this di- 
rection. 3d. Denominational zeal. Ministers try to turn all gifts 
into denominational enterprises. 4th. For two years several of the 
largest denominations have been getting up "memorial funds." 

59 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

experiences in raising money for the College and 
ought to understand the business, but I cannot un- 
derstand why Dr. Hamlin failed. I have never done 
such grand work or created any such enthusiasm as 
he did. He worked day and night. He had a great 
number of very successful public meetings, attended 
by the elite of America, and he diligently followed 
them up by personal interviews. No missionary 
has ever been more honored. No college president 
ever worked harder. But he got very little money. 
The great Chicago fire which took place while he 
was on the way to America may have had some in- 
fluence, and in New York City the fact that Mr. 
Robert's name had been given to the College fur- 
nished some with an excuse for not giving. No man 
in New York was more highly or more universally 
respected than Mr. Robert, but he was not a popu- 
lar man. There was no more liberal or conscien- 
tious giver in New York, but he carried out the in- 
junction not to let his left hand know what his right 
hand gave, and few knew how generous he was. It 

5th. The Chicago fire. 6th. "Charity begins at home," the com- 
mon excuse for not giving to anything foreign. My impression is that 
he might have added another more important one. 

Both he and Dr. Hamlin thought that their strongest argument 
was to say that the College was and would be self-supporting. I 
have always used the opposite argument. Without an endowment 
the College could not live. There is a pleasure in starting a good 
thing which will go on by itself, but where is there a genuine college 
which is progressing without an endowment ? According to Mr. 
Robert's books the College was self-supporting the fifth, seventh, 
eighth and ninth years, years when there were no professors. The 
other years there was a loss of more than two thousand dollars a 
year. It has never been self-supporting since the tenth year. 

60 



NINTH COLLEGE YEAR 

is not surprising that Dr. Hamlin found difficulties 
in New York City, but I never found Mr. Robert's 
name or character an obstacle in other places, where 
most of Dr. Hamlin's work was done. I cannot 
account for his failure. It was a terrible disap- 
pointment both to him and to Mr. Robert, and 
in April Mr. Robert had written to me that Dr. 
Hamlin feared that I was dooming the College "to 
financial ruin" by insisting upon the appointment 
of professors and perfecting our equipment. He 
seemed to share this feeling. Under these trying 
circumstances nothing in the history of the College 
is more remarkable than the way in which Mr. 
Robert's faith and courage rose above it all to meet 
the emergency. He not only consented to every- 
thing which I had asked for, but sent Dr. Hamlin 
back to put up three new buildings. 

It was during this college year and the next that 
Mr. Forbes and I made a careful geological survey 
of the Bosphorus region, extending back some 
twenty miles on each side of the Strait. Educated 
at Amherst under President Hitchcock, I had at 
one time thought of giving my life to geology. Mr. 
Forbes was also an Amherst man and had inter- 
ested himself in this subject, and he joined in this 
work most heartily. I probably owe my long life 
to the fact that for some two years Mr. Forbes and 
I devoted all the time that we could get to this out- 
of-door work, and there is no part of my life here 
that I look back upon with more pleasure. It was 
a field which had hardly been worked at all, and we 
made many interesting discoveries. We settled 
the age of the different formations in this vicinity 

61 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

and learned much of its geological history. One 
incident brought our work to the knowledge of the 
scientific world. Much was made just at this time 
of the discovery of evidence of the existence of man 
in the Miocene period, based on the discovery by 
Mr. Calvert of fossil bones in Miocene strata eight 
hundred feet below the surface which were "cov- 
ered with pictures which must have been made 
by human hands." The locality of the discovery 
was near the shore of the Dardanelles just on the 
edge of the Troad. Mr. Forbes and I went down 
there to investigate, and Mr. Calvert very kindly 
showed us the bones and informed us exactly 
where they had been found. We found the place, 
and the formation was undoubtedly Miocene. We 
found plenty of fossil bones of that period, some 
with similar marks on them, but we were able to 
demonstrate the fact that no human hands ever 
had anything to do with making these marks to the 
satisfaction of the scientific world. We afterward 
visited Hissarlik and were entertained there roy- 
ally by Mr. Schliemann and his beautiful wife. The 
world is generally agreed now that this is the site 
of ancient Troy; but we came to the conclusion, 
after visiting all the supposed sites, that there is no 
place in the Troad which answers to all the demands 
of the Iliad. 

The college year closed with 210 students, and Dr. 
Hamlin wrote to Mr. Robert of the Commence- 
ment exercises, July 25, 1872: "Yesterday was a 
great day and a high day at Robert College. It was 
the best of all our Commencements. It crowned 
them all, and in all respects the exercises of the grad- 

62 



NINTH COLLEGE YEAR 

uating class were excellent, not merely satisfactory, 
but positively gratifying, solid, thoughtful, clear, no 
flash, no 'hi-falutin,' but noble, manly and ele- 
vated. Music introduced for the first time and 
good. Speeches by Mr. Boker, American minister, 
Mr. Francis, our minister to Athens, Mr. Reming- 
ton" and others. Mr. Remington helped to cele- 
brate the day by giving five thousand dollars, the 
income of which was to be used for general pur- 
poses until it might seem wise to use the principal 
to start a museum of useful arts. We had already 
commenced a zoological museum, by the purchase 
of a unique collection of Turkish birds, which is 
still, I think, the only one in the city. 

The graduates numbered 8, — 6 Bulgarians, 
1 Greek and 1 English. Andrew C. Zenos, the 
Greek, has been for many years a very distinguished 
professor in American theological seminaries, 
now at McCormick Seminary in Chicago. Edward 
Binns, the Englishman, was thrown from a horse 
and killed in 1876. Of the Bulgarians the one to 
whom their country owes the most is Peter Dimitroff. 
He had paid his way through college by teaching 
Turkish and remained a teacher for several years 
after graduating. From the time of the Bulgarian 
massacres to the present day he has been one of the 
wisest, best and most devoted servants of his country. 
Constantine Calchof is now a wealthy banker and 
has occupied many important positions in the 
government of Eastern Roumelia and Bulgaria. 
Dimitry Economoff and Ivan D. Gueshoff have 
done good service in high official positions. Stephan 
M. Camburoff entered the army and died in 1882. 

63 



CHAPTER V 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE. 1872-1873 

This year marks an era in the history of the Col- 
lege. We crossed the Rubicon. We settled the ques- 
tion that this should be a college and not a high 
school, and that we would trust in God to raise 
up friends to support it. If Mr. Robert had not 
been a man of great faith, who lived very near to 
God, this decision would never have been made. I 
can never recall this decision on his part without a 
feeling of profound reverence for the man. Up to 
this time he had cherished the idea that the College 
might be self-supporting, and Dr. Hamlin had used 
this as one of his chief arguments in his campaign in 
America to raise funds. In fact during the last three 
years it had been self-supporting so far as current 
expenses were concerned, and the failure to raise 
money for endowment must have been a cogent 
reason in Mr. Robert's mind to avoid additional 
expenses, especially as we had managed to do some 
very good work under the existing system of having 
only one permanent teacher. Dr. Hamlin was a 
college in himself, as President Garfield said of Dr. 
Hopkins ; but it must be remembered Garfield had 
in view that there should be only one student, "Dr. 
Hopkins on one end of the log, he on the other." 
During the ninth year there had been over two 
hundred students in the College. I was acting 

64 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE 

president, I was the Faculty, I was the college 
preacher, I was professor of Philosophy and Politi- 
cal Economy. I taught English, I was treasurer, 
I was dean, I managed the boarding department, 
I was secretary and had all the correspondence 
and the direction of fifteen temporary instructors 
of eight different nationalities; and I was not Dr. 
Hamlin. It would have been ridiculous to call 
such an institution a college except for the one 
fact that it was in Turkey and that there was no 
other school in the empire in those early years to 
equal it. On the same plan it might have con- 
tinued to exist as a self-supporting high school, but 
it could never have been a college and never have 
attained the commanding position which it has 
held since 1872. Two professors were appointed 
and one adjunct professor. I was furnished with a 
secretary and Dr. Hamlin had returned from 
America. We had a Faculty. Rev. Albert L. Long, 
D.D., was appointed Professor of Natural Science, 
Edwin A. Grosvenor, Prof essor of Latin and History, 
Hagopos Djedjizian Adjunct Professor of Ancient 
and Modern Armenian. Dr. Long was a rare man, 
of distinguished ability and not quite forty years 
old. He had taught several years in America. He 
had been a missionary of the x\merican Methodist 
Church in Bulgaria for some twelve years, where he 
had won the confidence and affection of the people 
and with Dr. Riggs had translated the Bible into 
Bulgarian. It was through his influence that Bul- 
garians first came to the College. No college presi- 
dent ever had a more devoted and efficient associate, 
and he was a tower of strength in the College until 

65 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

he died in 1901, mourned by all Bulgaria and by 
every student who had been under him. He had 
been beloved as a brother by all his associates. 
Professor Grosvenor had been a tutor in the College 
for three years and had proved so efficient that we 
were glad to persuade him to return as a professor. 
He came back as an ordained minister. He filled 
the place with distinguished ability until he re- 
signed in 1890 to go to America and accept a pro- 
fessorship in Amherst College. Professor Dje- 
djizian was a graduate of the College in 1868 and 
had been an instructor ever since. He already had 
the reputation among the Armenians of being a 
very eloquent preacher and orator, as well as an 
Armenian scholar. His appointment as adjunct 
professor was a reversal of the former policy of the 
College, in which policy I had fully agreed with Mr. 
Robert, that we should appoint no natives of the 
country to permanent positions in the College. We 
all agreed in 1872 that this was a mistake, and our 
experience ever since has fully justified this conclu- 
sion. My secretary, Mr. Robert Thomson, who 
remained with me five years, was a young Scotch- 
man who had been a student in the College. He 
was an ideal secretary, and after leaving me he went 
to America and studied theology and has since been 
one of the best missionaries of the American Board 
in Bulgaria. In addition to these professors we 
began the year with four American tutors, Messrs. 
Richardson, Forbes, Arthur Hoyt and Woodbridge, 
eight other instructors and an English lady, Mrs. 
Dick, as matron. Our salary account for the year 
was increased about four thousand dollars over the 

66 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE 

previous year. The increase in our permanent 
staff enabled us to revise and improve our curricu- 
lum of studies, one thing Mr. Robert had con- 
stantly impressed upon us from the beginning. He 
often wrote about it. Dr. Hamlin's letters to him 
reechoed the same thought, and we all fully realized 
the fact that progress, development in the College, 
was essential to life. No one realized it more 
strongly than I did, and it has been my principle of 
action always. But progress means more men and 
more money. Our progress has never caught up 
with our desires. We had made progress before 
1872. To move from the old house in Bebec to 
Hamlin Hall at Hissar was an evidence of progress 
which deeply impressed all Constantinople. And 
we had done what we could from the first to improve 
our organization, our equipment and our course of 
study. We had been very fortunate in many of our 
tutors and instructors; but although we did our 
best with the men and the means which we had, the 
establishment of Robert College had already led to 
the establishment of the Galata Serai Lycee and 
several other national schools which in their equip- 
ment were in advance of us. Our superiority lay 
altogether in the moral and religious influences 
which went to the building up of character. Now 
with a live Faculty and Mr. Robert's determination 
to press forward, we were in a position to keep in 
advance of all rivals, and at the same time to bid 
them God-speed in their work. 

One of our most pressing wants was a material 
one. Our study halls and recitation rooms were 
absurdly inadequate to the number of our students, 

67 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

and Dr. Hamlin had returned expressly to erect a 
new building to meet this want. He trusted per- 
haps too much to the good will of the Turkish 
government and commenced work without waiting 
for any permission, but Aali Pasha had passed away 
and the Grand Vizier was the tool of Russia. Per- 
haps it was our fault in having failed to give a back- 
sheesh to the inspector who came to see what was 
going on. At any rate, the work was stopped, and it 
was some months before Mr. Boker, the American 
minister, succeeded in getting an irade for it. He 
could not get permission to erect professors' houses, 
and Dr. Hamlin returned to America without erect- 
ing them ; but] meanwhile he purchased the house in 
the village of Hissar in which I am now writing. 
Dr. Long moved into it at that time. The study 
hall building was a large one-story building behind 
Hamlin Hall, made with dry stone walls plastered 
without and within, containing two study rooms 
and recitation rooms in the roof, a temporary struc- 
ture which cost about ten thousand dollars. Dr. 
Hamlin was probably joking when he wrote of it as 
"adding to the magnificence of the College." It 
was an ugly building externally, but it answered its 
purpose admirably for thirty years, when it was 
pulled down, and at the time when it was built it 
added greatly to the efficient working of the College. 

After investing so much capital in land and build- 
ings and authorizing this increase in current ex- 
penses, Mr. Robert's faith was to be severely tried 
up to the time of his death, but he never expressed 
to me any regret at what he had done. The year 
had hardly opened when the news of the great fire 

68 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE 

in Boston put an end to the hopes that he had had 
of help from there, and the great financial crisis of 
1873 was not only discouraging in a general way, 
but it seriously reduced his own income. Much of 
his property was in real estate in the city of New 
York, and the value of this was steadily declining. 
Still he firmly believed that, in His own good time, 
God would provide for the College, as He has. His 
faith was not in vain. 

The number of students registered this year was 
257, of whom 68 were day scholars and 189 board- 
ers, but the number present at any one time was 
never more than 170 boarders and 45 day scholars. 
There were some troubles during the year which led 
to the expulsion of 6 students. The number of 
Greeks in the College had increased to 48, and the 
great conflict of the Greeks and Bulgarians over 
the church question had lately been decided by 
the Turks in favor of the Bulgarians, in view of 
which the Greek Patriarch had excommunicated the 
Bulgarian nation as schismatics. The intensely 
bitter feeling between the two nationalities was 
political as well as religious, for this recognition of 
the Bulgarians as a separate nationality put an end 
to long cherished hopes of a restoration of the 
Greek Empire at Constantinople. It revealed to 
the world that the Christians of European Turkey 
were mostly Slavs and not Greeks. It was inevi- 
table that our Bulgarian and Greek students should 
share in the general excitement, and on one occa- 
sion we escaped a general battle at the evening sur- 
veillance only because I happened to be within a 
hundred feet of the study hall. The Bulgarian 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

instructor was in charge of the study hall, and I 
found him closed with a big Greek, while every 
student was on his feet just rushing to the fray. I 
sent the Greek to my office and had no difficulty in 
restoring order in the hall, but it was a narrow 
escape from a great calamity. It is to the credit of 
both the Greeks and Bulgarians that after this they 
respected the neutral territory of the College so far 
as not to have any more serious conflicts. But it 
was years before the better class of Greeks began to 
come in any number to what they often complained 
to me was a Bulgarian college. At this time, how- 
ever, the Armenians had rather suddenly taken up 
the College and outnumbered any other nationality, 
which caused a combination against us of their 
national schools and attacks upon us in their news- 
papers, which culminated in the difficulties of the 
following year. 

I had to go to America on important business in 
the summer, and as the president was here and 
Professor Grosvenor was living in Hamlin Hall I 
was able to get away a month before the close of 
the year. Nothing really serious happened in my 
absence; but with Armenians, Bulgarians and 
Greeks all in rather an excited state, it was natural 
that after my departure they should try the metal 
of the modified administration and see what they 
could do, especially as Dr. Hamlin was not living 
in the College. There was some rioting in the 
building at the close of the year, after Commence- 
ment, but nothing more serious than often takes 
place in American schools. Dr. Hamlin made 
little of it. His great trial was with a case of drunk- 

70 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE 

enness. He thrashed two students publicly and 
expelled the third. This last was a curious case. 
The boy had given me endless trouble. Much of 
the time he was not an unattractive boy, but at 
intervals his behavior was such that it seemed to 
me like the cases reported in the New Testament 
of demoniacs. He seemed to be literally possessed 
of an evil spirit whom I could not cast out so that 
he should not return. I never heard of him after 
his expulsion until the time of my giving up the 
work here in 1904, when the old students raised a 
fund to found a scholarship in my name, when the 
committee showed me a most complimentary letter 
from him with a contribution of twenty francs for 
the testimonial, and then I learned that he was a 
most estimable man of very modest means, who 
wished to testify to the good that he had got in 
the College. Evidently Dr. Hamlin's discipline cast 
out the devil. 

Our Turkish neighbors in Hissar were in general 
rather fanatical and sometimes made things un- 
pleasant for us and our students, but we took as 
little notice of it as possible, hoping that as they 
came to know us better they would become friendly. 
They occasionally stoned us, sometimes spat on us 
and generally made use of their rich vocabulary 
of vituperation to abuse us. This year for some 
reason these manifestations increased so that we 
had to apply to our Legation for protection. It 
took six months of negotiations with the Sublime 
Porte to bring the affair to an end. The following 
year, under similar circumstances, when a lot of 
boys from the village molested us, I sent for the 

71 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

chief of the police, gave him a backsheesh and 
asked him to settle the matter, which he did by 
arresting the boys and thrashing them. We have 
not troubled our Legation with such matters since. 
The leader in these attacks was the wife of the 
village imam, a remarkable woman who for many 
years ruled this quarter of the village, a virago 
whom I do not care to describe, for we have been 
good friends for many years. I think it was Dr. 
Long who first won her over, when he lived just 
opposite to her in the house where I am writing. 
It was hard for any one to withstand his kindness. 
It was some years later that she came to my house 
and one day begged me to understand that the 
trouble she made us in those early years was all 
a mistake. "We thought," she said, "that you 
were bad people and would corrupt our village and 
we determined to drive you away, but we have 
found out that you are much better people than we 
are and we are very sorry for what we did." 

After the purchase of the house in Hissar Dr. 
Hamlin in some way got the idea that I intended 
to leave Hamlin Hall and move into this house. In 
fact I had never thought of doing so, but he wrote 
to Mr. Robert a solemn and rather violent protest 
against this. One paragraph may be quoted. 
"This measure would be revolutionary. Its ulti- 
mate moral result would be bad. It would end in 
failure. Should the measure ever be proposed and 
acceded to what course should I feel impelled to 
pursue ? . . . I will never assent to it, I will die 
first. Such a revolutionary measure would neces- 
sarily dissolve my connection, whether nominal or 

72 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE 

real, with the College and with its endowment." 
I lived in Hamlin Hall twenty years and only left 
it when forced to do so by my health; and when 
Professor Anderson and his family took our place, 
I still lived on the college grounds in Kennedy 
Lodge. I mention this matter here to record my 
absolute agreement with Dr. Hamlin's feeling, 
which prompted his protest. I believe that the 
work which Mrs. Washburn and I did in those 
twenty years was the best work we have ever done, 
that our influence over the teachers and the stu- 
dents was far greater and better than it has ever 
been since, even though we were living within 
a stone's throw of the College. So long as Professor 
Anderson lived in Hamlin Hall it was no great loss 
to the College, but it was a loss to me and Mrs. 
Washburn. In the end, after some ten years, he also 
was forced to give it up. Our personal influence 
over the students while we lived in Hamlin Hall 
was worth more to them than the instruction they 
received in my classes. 

One interesting episode of the year was a chal- 
lenge to a cricket match sent to our students by 
the officers of the British gunboat Antelope. They 
anticipated an easy victory, but they were igno- 
miniously beaten by our boys, and the same thing 
happened on the return match played a week later. 
They could not understand how Bulgarians, Ar- 
menians and Greeks in an American college could 
beat Englishmen at their national game, but they 
took it very good-naturedly. 

Among other interesting visitors during the year 
were Mr. Bancroft, the historian, then American 

73 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

minister at Berlin, and Bevan Braithwait, one of 
the leading Friends in England. Mr. Bancroft was 
greatly interested in the College and was one of 
our best friends in America until his death. I took 
him to call on Achmet Vefik Pasha, who was as 
entertaining as usual, and made a great impression 
on Mr. Bancroft. He was just then Minister of 
Public Instruction, and he assured Mr. Bancroft 
that he had established forty thousand schools in 
the empire. Perhaps he had — on paper. Mr. 
Braithwait is still one of our warm friends in Eng- 
land and has visited us several times. "The Lord 
has always moved him" to address the students, 
and his addresses have been admirable. 

We had only one graduate at the end of this year, 
and he had gone over the studies of the Senior year 
a second time, having failed to pass his examina- 
tions the year before. He was a Bulgarian, John J. 
Sitchanoff, and he has been one of the most useful 
of our graduates. He has been for many years the 
pastor of the Protestant church in Philippopolis, 
the most important in Bulgaria, and is held in high 
esteem by all classes in the city. 

It will seem strange that the tenth year of the 
College, with more than 200 students, we had no 
Senior class. This resulted in part from the en- 
largement of our course of study, but chiefly from 
another cause. Of the 257 students registered the 
tenth year, only 54 ever graduated. This number 
would have been somewhat larger, but for the Ar- 
menian troubles the following year. Still it repre- 
sents an important fact. If we take the whole 
number of students who have entered the College 

74 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE 

since its foundation, not more than one in six has 
completed the course and graduated. The primary 
reason for this is that when the College was founded 
the only idea that the people of Turkey had of edu- 
cation was the acquiring a practical knowledge of 
three or four languages, and this idea is still very 
common. Then again the majority of our students 
come to the College to be prepared for business and 
are always ready to leave when their parents find 
a promising opening for them. Many are too 
poor to complete their education. Again in Turkey 
proper there are very few openings for Christians 
in professional life or in government offices, so that 
the need of a college education is not apparent. 
Many fall out because they are dropped from their 
classes for failure to pass examinations and from 
other personal reasons. During the tenth year 24 
students left either from illness or because their 
families were leaving Turkey. 

But we have never measured the value of our 
work by the number of our graduates. The aver- 
age length of time spent in the College by those who 
have not graduated is more than three years. We 
do what we can to induce those who are of more 
than ordinary ability to finish their course, whatever 
career they may have in view, because there is great 
need of such men to become leaders of their people; 
but many of our old students who did not complete 
the course have done more honor to the College 
and shown more affection for it than some of those 
who have graduated. 



75 



CHAPTER VI 



RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS. 1873-1874 

Dr. Hamlin left Constantinople September 26 
with his family to renew his efforts to raise an en- 
dowment, honored and beloved by men of many 
races, but most of all by those who had been under 
his instruction in the Bebec Seminary and in Rob- 
ert College. He never returned. On the twenty- 
fifth anniversary of the opening of the College 
every effort was made to induce him to come to 
Constantinople, at our expense, but he replied that 
if he could be sure that he would die there he would 
go. He could not again go through the trial of 
leaving. 

I have postponed any extended statement in 
regard to the religious work of the College until 
this time, because it will be better understood in 
connection with the Armenian difficulties, which 
had been threatening for some months and culmi- 
nated early in this college year. I cannot present 
it more clearly than by giving some of the letters 
which were written at the time to Mr. Robert. It 
should be said in advance that this is the only con- 
flict that we have ever had with any of the old 
Christian churches of the East, and that for many 
years the highest authorities in the Armenian as 
well as the Greek and Bulgarian churches have 
been our warmest supporters and have recognized 

76 



RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS 

the fact that our religious efforts are directed to 
making Christians rather than Protestants — that 
it is not our purpose to destroy these churches, but 
to strengthen their spiritual life and their moral 
influence. 

" October 2, 1873. 

"There is good reason to believe that we are just 
now entering upon one of the most trying experi- 
ences of our college life. I have already informed 
you that the College has been made the object of a 
series of bitter attacks in the Armenian newspapers 
of the city. The nominal cause of this was a case of 
discipline which occurred while I was in America 
near the end of the year. In fact, however, this was 
only a pretense* The real cause came out in various 
letters published in these papers. 'Why,' they say, 
'should Armenians patronize foreigners and here- 
tics when we have such fine schools of our own and 
such distinguished instructors?' I saw a result of 
these attacks at the commencement of the term. 
No new Armenian students came. A number 
had been registered but have not come. Almost 
every one who was here last year came back this 
year, but on one pretense or another they have put 
off paying their bills, not all but most of them. . . . 
On Sunday last I received a letter signed by eleven 
Armenian students of which the following is a copy : 

" ' Considering that the commentaries on the Bible 
will not be in direct and strict conformance with the 
especial doctrines of the Armenian Church, con- 
sidering that we are required by our religious officers 
as well as by our parents to be taught in religious 

77 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE ■ 

matters by them, as they are exclusively acknow- 
ledged by the Armenian Church, we confess our- 
selves not authorized to conform to your summons 
concerning the Bible class, unless the permission of 
our parents be procured by an especial correspond- 
ence.' 

" I let the matter rest a day or two, and last even- 
ing I called these boys and had a two hours' talk 
with them. At first they declined to say anything 
but that this letter expressed the will of their par- 
ents. I cut them off from that tack and finally led 
them into a frank, full confession of their plans and 
ideas. They assured me that they had nothing 
special to complain of in the Bible classes, that they 
and their religion had always been treated with re- 
spect. They confessed that what they intended to 
demand and insist upon was ' the absolute abolition 
of all religious teaching in the College. Only on this 
condition could they consent to remain. No one 
was authorized to give them religious instruction ex- 
cept the priests of their church, and as they did not 
understand the grounds on which their own faith 
was based, they feared that they might lose faith 
altogether in it. They and their parents were con- 
stantly abused and annoyed by other Armenians for 
patronizing a Protestant school and listening to 
heresy,' etc. I reasoned with them in the most 
kind, considerate and friendly manner, and the 
whole interview was very pleasant. Not one angry 
or excited word was spoken. But it was evident all 
through that they had not originated this scheme 
and were not their own masters, that they were 
simply a skirmishing party thrown out 'to feel the 

78 



RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS 



enemy.' It is not necessary for me to report my 
part of the conversation any farther than to say that 
I explained to them that you founded this College 
for the one object of giving a Christian education 
to the people of Turkey, that you regarded educa- 
tion without religion as more a curse than a blessing, 
that if I yielded to their demands you would remove 
me at once from my position as director. Moreover 
that I fully sympathized with your views, as we all 
do, that much as we might wish to retain the favor 
of the Armenians we regarded the favor of God as 
infinitely more important, that this was a matter 
upon which there could be no compromise and no 
hesitation. 

"This morning five of them went to town to 
report and get further instructions from head- 
quarters. What I anticipate is that they will do 
nothing until Sunday and then stay away from all 
the religious exercises, leaving it to me to punish 
them and thus give them a pretext for raising the 
cry of persecution. This would be the shrewdest 
course for them to take. [They did not do it, but 
attended the services.] I do not think that there is 
a chance of their giving up the battle without a 
sharp fight. 

"I have looked back carefully over the past ten 
years in the light of this difficulty and I can see 
nothing to regret, nothing that I would wish undone 
in the course we have taken as to religious instruc- 
tion. We have never attacked the faith of any of 
our students. We have had no controversy with 
them, but we have preached and urged upon them 
constantly the simple, practical truths of the New 

79 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 



Testament, principles recognized by all Christian 
churches. We have never concealed from any par- 
ent, Christian, Jew or Mohammedan, the fact that 
we should teach their sons these things. On the 
contrary we have made it a point to explain it to 
them, that they might have no cause of complaint 
afterwards. I believe that this attack does not 
originate with the boys or their parents, but they 
are driven up to it by outside influence." 

" Saturday, October 5, 1873. 

" An Armenian newspaper of yesterday had a letter 
and an editorial on this subject in which it was said 
among other things that 'the director of the Col- 
lege was formerly engaged in paying Armenians to 
become Protestants, but now he had devised a plan 
by which he made them pay forty-four pounds for 
the privilege.' [This referred to my having been 
treasurer of the Mission Board.] This morning I 
called the leading Armenian students and told them 
that neither they nor we wished to have any conflict 
or any break in the uniform friendliness of our in- 
tercourse, that their plan of presenting me their 
parents' protest to-night and their refusing to attend 
the services to-morrow would inevitably bring on 
such a conflict and that, if they could not attend the 
services, it was better for them to go home for the 
Sabbath and return Monday morning. About 
twenty went home. As next week is the monthly 
vacation this will give us two weeks' time to settle 
the controversy. Their plan was to push things to 
a final crisis to-morrow and carry it through under 
excitement. They had made great efforts to induce 

80 



RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS 



the Greeks and Bulgarians to unite with them, but 
they failed utterly." 

" Monday Evening, October 7. 

u The Armenians returned and presented me with 
the following ultimatum signed by thirteen persons 
representing twenty- three boarding students : 

" s Sir : Considering that the Protestant church 
ceremonies and Bible classes have become obliga- 
tory : considering that we have sent our boys simply 
to receive instruction in languages and in science, 
we beg of you by this present document that you 
would free our boys from attending the religious 
services and Bible classes, or if that is wholly con- 
trary to the principles of your College you will please 
inform our boys that they may at once withdraw 
from the College.' 

" To-morrow I shall give them this reply : 

" 6 Gentlemen : I have the honor to inform you 
that no new regulations have been made in Robert 
College with regard to religious instruction of the 
students, and that the instruction has been simply 
such as is considered in all Christian colleges essen- 
tial to good order and to the development of the 
moral character of the students. We have highly 
valued your favorable opinion and we shall regret 
to lose your patronage, but we cannot accede to 
your request to excuse your sons from attendance 
on religious services. Should we do so we must ex- 
tend this permission to all students of all nationali- 
ties, which would involve the cessation of all moral 
instruction in the College, without which we believe 
no institution of learning can secure the favor of 
God or man.' " 

81 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 



" October 13, 1873. 

"Tuesday morning I called these students together 
at half past eight o'clock and gave them the reply 
with some additional explanations. I then sent 
them home, having posted two or three teachers in 
such places that no disturbance could be made and 
they all went off in school hours as quietly as pos- 
sible. They collected, however, in the field outside 
the college grounds and marched in a body through 
the village of Hissar, singing Armenian national 
songs and making other demonstrations. Twenty- 
three left on Tuesday, 1 on Wednesday, and 1 on 
Thursday, 1 later, 26 in all, of whom 9 afterward 
returned. Others would have been sent back by 
their parents but the boys declared that they could 
not stand the merciless ridicule which would be 
heaped upon them by the Greeks and Bulgarians." 

\ / The following year we had only 32 Armenian 
r boarders in place of 70 the year before these troubles. 
This was not the end of the controversy. It was 
continued for months by the Armenian newspapers, 
with the result that for two or three years very few 
new Armenian students were sent to the College. 

The following is a translation of a letter pub- 
lished in the Armenian papers after the students 
had left. It is signed by two of the best Armenian 
students in the College, who were leaders in this 
affair and did not return. 

"We have recently seen several articles in the 
Armenian papers in regard to the religious instruc- 
tion given to the students of Robert College. Since 
there are some who do not believe these statements, 

82 



RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS 

we as students of the College feel obliged to state 
publicly what the real facts are. It has always been 
obligatory on the students to attend the religious 
services and Bible classes, but we and other stu- 
dents have attended them without realizing the con- 
sequences of so unjust a regulation or giving any 
information to our parents. We attended them at 
first mechanically, but we unconsciously came un- 
der the influence of this indirect preaching about 
the different doctrines of the Christian Church and 
the Bible exercises. The consequence was that we 
lost our faith in the Orthodox Armenian Church. 
For this reason we have been obliged to guard 
against the probable and necessary result that we 
should become Protestants. We first informed the 
director about this state of things and asked him to 
excuse us from attending these religious services. 
We did not expect that he would refuse so just a 
request. It was impossible for us to believe that a 
celebrated American institution in Turkey would 
ever be the means of violating the freedom of con- 
science. The object of this institution, as it is ex- 
pressed in the programme, being 4 the highest mental 
and moral training of the students,' we wished to 
make another effort, so we presented the following 
document signed by our parents. [For this and my 
reply see previous page.] The consequence of this 
reply of the director was the withdrawal from the 
College of the sons of those persons who had signed 
the paper, but it is to be regretted that there are 
still about thirty Armenians in the College. We 
hope that those who feel any interest in their own 
religion will remove their sons to our national 

83 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

schools. Finally we advise our people not to be de- 
ceived by the programme of the College, and assure 
them that if they send their sons there they will be 
the means of making them Protestants. 

(Signed) Hagopian and Capamadjian." 

Later, one of the prominent Armenians, who 
kept his son in the College, said to me with tears in 
his eyes: "The one thing that I desire for my son 
is that he should be a good man. I belong to the 
Orthodox Armenian Church and so have my an- 
cestors for hundreds of years. It would be a grief 
to me if my son should become a Protestant, but if 
he cannot be made a good man without that then 
let him be a Protestant." 

Some time after this the Hagopian who signed the 
above letter sent the following to the papers : 

"There is one thing that, up to this time, I have 
kept secret. Mr. Washburn, when we went to be 
excused from religious exercises, said to us: 'We 
are no longer in the dark ages. This is the nine- 
teenth century. It is an age of light. Men do not 
now cover their eyes and stop their ears from fear of 
learning something different from what they have 
believed before. Men do not accept blindly every- 
thing they are told by their priests, but investigate 
and judge for themselves. We do not ask you to ac- 
cept what we say because we say it, but to judge it 
and see if it is true. You expect to be educated men, 
to be the leaders of your people. You can only be 
so by becoming thinking men, willing and anxious 
to know the truth.' 

"He also said that Mr. Robert would rather cut 

84 



RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS 

off his right hand than abolish all religious instruc- 
tion in the College." 

The Mr. Hagopian who wrote these letters has 
been for many years one of the leading Armenians 
in Constantinople and one of the most faithful and 
devoted friends of Robert College. 

I should add a brief statement of exactly what was 
required of our students at that time in the way of 
religious services. It has been modified since 1902 
in some details, but is essentially unchanged. 

All students are required to attend morning 
prayers at 8.15 every day except Sunday. At 
these the Scriptures are read and prayer of- 
fered. Sometimes there is a very brief applica- 
tion made of the Scripture passage. On the 
Sabbath we have a preaching service at 11 o'clock; 
at 3 p.m. we have Bible classes, with a general 
exercise of half an hour under the direction of the 
president at the opening, prayer, singing and 
a brief address either historical or exegetical. At 
7.30 p.m. an informal service, where a great variety 
of subjects are treated. All students who do not live 
at home are required to attend these Sabbath ser- 
vices. At that period I preached half of the time, 
Dr. Long and Professor Grosvenor the other half. 
The evening services were conducted by the tutors 
and instructors and often in the native languages or 
in French. At these services it is intended that the 
teaching shall not be polemical and shall not touch 
on points at issue between the churches. No attack 
is ever made upon any religion, but the essential 
and practical teachings of the New Testament are 
presented as clearly as possible. It is no doubt 

85 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 



true that this religious instruction has an influence 
upon the students. If we thought that it did not 
we should give it up. The old Christian churches 
have long since come to appreciate its value, and I 
believe that it is the religious and moral influence of 
the College which, more than anything else, leads 
parents to send their sons here. Even the Turks 
appreciate this and they have sometimes said to me, 
"I send my son here that he may be brought up 
with English morality," English in this case mean- 
ing Protestant. 

The long continued and violent attacks upon the 
College in the Armenian papers probably had some 
influence in stirring up the Turkish government to 
adopt hostile measures. The Grand Vizier told Mr. 
Boker, the American minister, that the government 
had determined to prohibit the circulation of the 
Bible in any language and that they would not allow 
that Protestant college to put up the houses we had 
asked for. He told Sir Henry Elliott that they had 
determined to oppose Protestantism with all their 
might as a matter of patriotism. This Grand Vizier 
was a tool of Russia and no doubt this also accounts 
in some measure for his opposition to England and 
to Protestantism. He was the same man who, dur- 
ing the Crimean War, as Turkish commander at 
Kars, is said to have sold the place to Russia. 

Other interesting events of the year can only be 
noticed very briefly. In February and March we 
had great snow-storms and cold which paralyzed the 
city and threatened us with starvation at the Col- 
lege. Men were killed and eaten by wolves within 
sight of the College. Wild boars were shot on the 

86 



RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS 

shores of the Bosphorus. There were remnants of 
these snow-banks on the hills near us two months 
later. 

In the summer of 1873 Dr. Long had gone at Mr. 
Robert's request to Paris and Vienna to purchase 
the apparatus needed in his department. This 
came early in the year and attracted much atten- 
tion, bringing us many visitors of different nation- 
alities, including Turkish pashas, who were much 
impressed by the experiments which they saw. 

April 1 we had our first Junior exhibition, under 
the direction of Professor Grosvenor. The new 
study hall was crowded with guests, and the orations, 
ten in number, were remarkably good. The moral 
and religious tone breathing through them im- 
pressed the audience most favorably. 

Aside from the Armenian troubles the year was a 
peaceful one, although two students had to be ex- 
pelled for engaging in a diabolical plot against one 
of their companions. The health of the students 
after the great storm was unusually bad, and I had 
to send my son to America in May with Mrs. Wash- 
burn as he was threatened with tuberculosis. Hap- 
pily he recovered. We were greatly distressed also 
by hearing of the illness of Dr. Hamlin. 

The number of students present at the close of 
the year was 178, of whom 47 were day scholars, 31 
less boarders than at the end of the previous year, 
representing a loss in tuition of some five thousand 
dollars. It is not strange that this unhappy experi- 
ence impressed upon us and upon Mr. Robert the 
absolute necessity of an endowment. Dr. Long 
wrote to Mr. Robert: "To secure the permanence 

87 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

of the College it must be sufficiently endowed to 
enable it to tide over just such difficulties as this, 
even if they should take away four-fifths of our 
students. Those who know the character of the 
nationalities of the East, know that a popular tu- 
mult is very easily raised and a storm is liable to 
arise at any time, when we shall be in danger of 
going down so long as we are pecuniarily dependent 
on their patronage. The life of so noble an institu- 
tion as this must not be contingent upon the favor of 
a fickle populace," — or, he would have added a 
few years later, of political disturbances and revolu- 
tions. 

The Commencement exercises were about as well 
attended as the year before and five students were 
graduated, all Bulgarians. One of these died a few 
years later. The other four have all distinguished 
themselves in the government of Bulgaria, and are 
still living. 



88 



CHAPTER VII 

VISIT OF MR. ROBERT. 1874-1875 

It was evident, even at the opening of the college 
year, that storms were gathering about us in the 
political world which might seriously affect our 
work. The Eastern question had reached a critical 
period when some form of European intervention 
seemed probable, but which form it would take 
could not be foreseen. In Constantinople Russia, 
under the lead of General Ignatieff, and England, 
represented by Sir Henry Elliott, were both playing 
a dangerous game, which ended in massacres, revo- 
lution, war and the dismemberment of European 
Turkey. While the College had nothing to do with 
these political intrigues we felt the influence of them 
in many ways. Constantinople was in a ferment; 
there was a vague fear of what might happen which 
kept away some students and naturally excited 
those who came. We, who knew what was going on, 
could not but feel some anxiety. It was not dimin- 
ished by a visit which I paid to Bulgaria in the 
Easter vacation with Mr. Panaretoff . I had never 
before had any conception of the suffering of the 
Christians under Turkish rule, but I saw things 
there which filled me with horror, which were not 
so much direct acts of the government as the results 
of a general policy — the tyranny of the armed 
Turkish minority over the unarmed and helpless 

89 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

Christian majority. It was not so bad in the towns 
where the well-to-do Bulgarians kept the Turkish 
officials in their pay, but the peasants were practi- 
cally serfs with no rights. I accidentally met one 
young man who confessed that he belonged to a 
company which was planning a rebellion against 
the government, and I spent an hour in trying to 
convince him of the utter folly of such an attempt, 
which was certain to fail and could only add to the 
suffering of the people. Such outbreaks had taken 
place near the Danube, under the secret patronage 
of Russia, but were easily put down. 

Notwithstanding these political troubles the year 
opened and passed away without any disturbance 
of the peace of the College. Our staff consisted of 
the director, Professors Long, Grosvenor and Dje- 
djizian. Mr. Panaretoff was also appointed adjunct 
professor of Slavic and Bulgarian. Our tutors were 
Messrs. Arthur Hoyt, Webber, Savage and Webster. 
There were seven other teachers. Mr. Hoyt lost his 
health and very nearly his life from malaria result- 
ing from a summer excursion through Bulgaria, and 
to our great regret was obliged to return to America, 
where in time he recovered, to become a distin- 
guished professor in Auburn Theological Seminary. 
Mr. Webber had charge of the Preparatory Depart- 
ment. Miss Haynes came as matron in November. 

The whole number of students registered during 
the year was 208. The number present at the close 
of the year was 176. 

Boarders . . . 144 

Day scholars . . .32 — 176 
90 



VISIT OF MR. ROBERT 



As all of the Bulgarians were boarders, they were 
more numerous than any other nationality in Ham- 
lin Hall. 

The nationalities represented were as follows : 



Armenians 

Greeks 

Bulgarians 

English 

Americans , 

Turks 

Jews 

Germans 

Italians 

Dalmatians 

French 

Austrians . 

Dutch 

Russian 

Pole . 



55 
48 
45 
21 

8 

6 

6 

6 

4 

2 

2 

2 

1 

1 

1—208 



The most interesting event during the year was 
the visit of Mr. Robert, who reached the College 
June 12, 1875, and lived in Hamlin Hall until after 
the Commencement exercises, just six weeks. At 
the time of his first visit we were still in Bebec. It 
has been said many times that Robert College was 
the product of Dr. Hamlin's brains and Mr. Rob- 
ert's money. Dr. Hamlin never said this, and it is 
no disparagement of him to say that Mr. Robert 
not only gave his money and his heart to the Col- 
lege, but that every step that was taken from the 
first conception of the College to the time of his 

91 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

death was fully discussed with him and largely in- 
fluenced by his judgment. It was to his credit that 
when an agreement could not be reached with Dr. 
Hamlin or with me he never used his authority to 
override our judgment, but left the final decision 
with us. His two visits to the College were devoted 
to the most careful study of existing conditions and 
future development — to getting light on every- 
thing connected with the work. He talked with all 
the teachers, made the acquaintance of students and 
their parents, consulted the missionaries and other 
foreign residents and listened to everything that any 
one wished to say about the College. He investi- 
gated every department of work, and this not as a 
matter of curiosity or a question of expense, but 
that he might be able to give more intelligent advice 
in what was the one thing that he was always insist- 
ing upon — the necessity of steady growth. He 
gave us the best he had of brain work as well as of 
money. 

He entered heartily into the social life of the Col- 
lege and the city, and he told me after his departure 
that he had never spent six happier weeks in his life. 
He greatly enjoyed a grand picnic that he gave to 
the teachers and students of the College. He char- 
tered a steamboat and made an excursion up to the 
Black Sea, returning to Hunkiar Iskelessi, where we 
had our dinner under the trees, with speeches and 
sports afterwards, getting back to the College in the 
evening. He also gave a breakfast to the mission- 
aries and their wives at Buyukdere. He found 
them more friendly to the College than they had 
been five years before. His addresses to the stu- 

92 



VISIT OF MR. ROBERT 



dents were very practical, and they were greatly in- 
terested in what he told them of his own early life 
and the lessons that he had learned from the Book 
of Proverbs. He gave each student a copy of the 
book, and I have often had occasion since to quote 
his authority, in addition to that of Solomon, as to 
how a young man was to win success in life. 

In those early years he was a subject of much 
discussion among the people of the country, who 
could not understand what motive prompted him 
to found the College. I have often heard it dis- 
cussed on the Bosphorus steamers. Mr. Hanson, 
the English banker, told me that he heard this con- 
versation between two Turkish gentlemen. "Do 
you see that College?" "Yes." "Well, in my 
opinion it is the greatest disgrace to the Turks of 
anything in Constantinople." "Why so, I never 
thought of that. It is a fine building." "So it is, 
but what does it mean? Here was a stranger, an 
American gentleman, who came to Constantinople 
for a few days and was so impressed with the neces- 
sities of our people, with their ignorance and their 
need of education, that he took his own money and 
built this splendid College and endowed it for the 
good of those who were strangers to him. We have 
hundreds of rich pashas, some of the richest living 
in sight of this College. Which of them ever saw or 
cared for the wants of the people or gave a piaster of 
his money to educate them? This College is a 
shame and disgrace to us." The native Christians 
often said, "He did it for his soul," i. e. to purchase 
a high seat for himself in heaven. There were 
many, however, who had a sufficient appreciation 

93 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 



of his motives and of the advantages the College 
had brought to them to express, and I have no doubt 
to feel, gratitude — and now I seldom hear any 
other comment. 

One important subject of discussion when Mr. 
Robert was here was the question of the title to the 
land which we had bought since the first purchase, 
which was made secure by the irade. The other 
land was held by a legal fiction — in the name of 
"Mariam bint Toma" which was Mrs. Hamlin, 
who had been registered under that name as a 
Turkish subject. English and other foreign insti- 
tutions held their property in the name of the con- 
sulates or embassies; but the United States gov- 
ernment refused to allow this, and for a long time 
refused to sign the protocol allowing Americans to 
hold property in their own names. It was tempo- 
rarily transferred to me as director of the College, 
and a few months ago (1906) the greater part of it, 
after all these years of negotiation, was secured to 
the College by irade — which reminds me that it 
took thirty years to get permission to build, at our 
own expense, a sewer from the College to the Bos- 
phorus. These delays to which we are always sub- 
ject do not come from any hostility to the College 
on the part of the government, but from the nature 
of the government itself, and are the common expe- 
rience of all, natives and foreigners. Much also 
depends upon the character and spirit of the min- 
ister who represents the United States government 
here. We were particularly fortunate at this time in 
the appointment of Horace Maynard, who arrived 
here in May, 1875, who was not only a statesman 

94 



VISIT OF MR. ROBERT 

of great ability, but an earnest Christian in full 
sympathy with our work. Many of the ministers 
sent here to represent the United States have had 
no interest whatever in the Americans resident in 
Turkey and have had as little to do w T ith them as 
possible. Personally I have never had occasion to 
complain of any one of them. For many I have had 
the highest respect ; but there have been times when 
if it had not been for our intimate relations with the 
British Embassy, the College would have fared very 
badly. It has generally, not always, been true that 
the English government has shown much greater in- 
terest in the College than the government at Wash- 
ington. A distinguished Englishman who visited 
Washington when Mr. Bayard was Secretary of 
State was amazed to find that he had never heard of 
Robert College. I suppose that Mr. Bayard was 
equally astonished to learn that this Englishman 
thought that the founding of Robert College was the 
most important thing that America had done in 
Europe. Mr. Hay was the best friend that we have 
ever had in the State Department. Mr. Blaine was 
also very friendly. No President has shown more 
interest in the College than Mr. Roosevelt. Some 
of the distinguished ministers who have been here 
have been warm friends, and all of them have been 
ready to preside at our Commencement exercises 
and thus give their official sanction to the College. 

Among them all we have had no better minister 
than Horace Maynard and none to whom the Col- 
lege owes more. I do not think that any minister 
here has ever won the confidence and respect of the 
Turkish government so fully as he did. The famous 

95 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

editor of the Louisville Courier- Journal told me, some 
years after the war, that he considered Mr. Maynard 
the greatest man in the South who remained loyal to 
the government. He was rather a singular looking 
man, and it was said at the time that the Sultan, after 
his presentation, inquired whether he was an Ameri- 
can dervish. But he soon acquired great influence, 
by his straightforward integrity and the skill with 
which he defended every American interest, while 
carefully abstaining from all association with the 
great political intrigues which were going on at the 
time. 

The class work of the College went on very satis- 
factorily during the year. We had settled down 
upon a programme of studies for the four college 
classes which was based upon what was generally 
adopted at that time in New England colleges, but 
modified to adapt it to the practical wants of our 
students. The great practical difficulty which we 
had to meet was the multiplicity of languages. 
There was no escape to giving a prominent place to 
English. That was the language of the College. If 
we did not require Latin the European universities 
would not recognize our diplomas. Every student 
wished to study French. Armenians, Bulgarians, 
Greeks and Turks must have thorough instruction 
in their own languages and in the ancient languages 
from which these were derived, or they could never 
hold their places among their own people. This 
meant that each student must study at least five 
languages — probably Turkish also for Turkish 
subjects. As there was no escape from all this lin- 
guistic work, the question was how to find time for 

96 



VISIT OF MR. ROBERT 

anything else. We have since added a year to the 
college course and put four years into the Prepara- 
tory Department, but in 1875 this was not prac- 
ticable. It did not trouble us that we had to depart 
from American standards, for it was our duty to 
adapt the College to the circumstances of the East, 
but we had to learn from experience that the study 
of modern European languages and an introduction 
to their literature was worth quite as much to our 
students as the study of Latin and Greek had been 
to us. We give more time to the native languages 
now than we did then. 

At that time we took our students through Alge- 
bra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Surveying, Ana- 
lytical Geometry, and Conic Sections, giving six 
hours a week to these mathematical studies. In 
Science they had Zoology, Physics, Physiology, 
Chemistry, Botany, Geology and Mineralogy, and 
Astronomy, in this order, an average of five hours a 
week. History three hours a week, Political Econ- 
omy, Rhetoric, Parliamentary Law, Physical Geog- 
raphy, Psychology, Ethics, History of Philosophy, 
History of Civilization, International Law, each five 
or six hours a week for one term. There were no 
optional studies in the course, but some students did 
get additional work in some branches. This course 
of study was quite equal to that of any American 
College fifty years ago, and there was no school in 
this country which at that time even professed to 
equal it. To most people here it seemed unneces- 
sarily extended. They would have been quite con- 
tented with the languages, arithmetic and a little 
science, the latter just for the name of it. It is due 

97 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

to those who were teachers in the College at that 
time to say that so far as it went the instruction in 
all these branches was honest and thorough. 
There was no pretense or humbug about it. 

The number of graduates in 1875 was 11, 7 Bul- 
garians, 3 Armenians and 1 Greek, all but % of 
whom are still living (1907). The Armenians and 
the Greek are all merchants, one of the Bulgarians 
was a distinguished teacher, one has been Prime 
Minister, one has been several times a minister, one 
was private secretary of Prince Alexander and later 
of Prince Ferdinand, and the others have occupied 
important positions in Bulgaria. 

Commencement in those early years of the Col- 
lege was in some respects a more important and 
more interesting affair than it has been since 1894. 
There was a freedom of speech which has not been 
possible of late years. Our audiences were neces- 
sarily limited by the size of the study hall, which 
however was always crowded, with more or less 
Turkish women looking in at the windows. One 
afternoon was devoted to prize speaking, and that 
evening in 1875 was occupied by an English spelling 
match. Sometimes it was a prize debate between 
two classes. On Commencement Day only invited 
guests were admitted, and after the orations of the 
graduating class in various languages, addresses 
were made by the distinguished official guests who 
occupied the places of honor on the platform. In 
1875 the principal speakers were Mr. Maynard 
and Mr. Robert. It was on this occasion also that 
prizes were announced and given out for the prize 
speaking, for the highest rank in scholarship in the 

98 



VISIT OF MR. ROBERT 

different classes and for special work in certain de- 
partments. At the close of the exercises the guests 
were entertained at lunch in the college dining 
room. 

That year Mrs. Washburn, who had returned 
from America in November, and I spent the sum- 
mer vacation in Switzerland, and Mr. Robert went 
with us as far as Zurich, where we met our son re- 
turning in good health from America. 



99 



CHAPTER VIII 



POLITICAL CRISIS IN TURKEY. 1875-1876 

This is in no sense a history of Turkey, but it is 
impossible to write a history of the College at this 
period without some reference to our environment, 
and an explanation of our relations to what was 
taking place about us, and it should be made clear 
at the outset that Dr. Long and I were personally 
responsible for the attitude of the College at this 
time. Dr. Hamlin was so violently anti-Russian in 
his sympathies that he was the principal advocate 
of Turkey in the United States and was officially 
thanked for this by the Turkish government. Mr. 
Robert had always forbidden all meddling with 
political affairs, and he was right. This has always 
been the policy of the College. It was mine and Dr. 
Long's. The College has always used all its influ- 
ence to keep the students out of politics and to 
make them realize the folly of rebellion against the 
government. We have always recognized our duty 
to respect the laws of the country, and no official 
complaint has ever been made against us by the 
Turkish government, nor was any complaint ever 
made against Dr. Long or me as individuals, al- 
though it is true that great political changes were 
brought about in some measure by our personal 
influence. We did our best to prevent the outbreak 
in Bulgaria which was the excuse for the massacre 

100 



POLITICAL CRISIS IN TURKEY 

which followed; but when it was a question of the 
massacre of thousands of innocent and unarmed 
Bulgarians, men, women and children, we did 
everything in our power to put a stop to it. We saw 
then, what the Turks see now, that this massacre 
was one of the greatest blunders that they have ever 
made. We did our best through the British Em- 
bassy to make them see it at that time. Whatever 
we did we reported to Mr. Robert from week to 
week, and in the end we had his full approval. 

When the College opened in September, 1875, the 
situation of political affairs in Constantinople was 
alarming and complicated. There was a Turkish 
conspiracy, supported by England, secretly working 
against Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz, who was defended by 
Russia; and a serious insurrection against the Turks 
had broken out in Herzegovina, also one of little im- 
portance in Bulgaria. The Grand Vizier, Mah- 
moud Nedim Pasha, who lived just below the Col- 
lege, was the tool of Russia, and there is evidence 
that he had arranged for the sending of Russian 
troops to Constantinople to defend the Sultan. The 
alarm and excitement in the city was increased by 
his communication to the embassies that he had 
discovered a plot for the massacre of Christians and 
foreigners, and by his stopping the payment of in- 
terest on the national debt and seizing all the hy- 
pothecated revenues. Mr. Robert was so much 
alarmed by the news that he proposed to send us a 
consignment of rifles to defend the College, which 
we declined. As time went on Servia and Monte- 
negro threatened war and aided the revolutionists 
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the European 

101 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

Powers prepared to intervene. This resulted in the 
"Andrassy Note," which was a demand for certain 
reforms in the insurgent provinces. The Sultan 
tried to forestall this by issuing an irade decreeing 
general reforms in the empire. The Powers re- 
garded this as so much waste paper. Nothing came 
of either the trade or the note, except more general 
discontent and excitement. Thus ended the year 
1875. 

Meanwhile the College had opened with 137 
boarders, of whom 33 were Bulgarians, and 30 day 
scholars — 167 students in all, only 9 less than at 
the close of the previous year, which was evidence 
that the public regarded the College as a safe refuge. 
We had one new tutor, Mr. McLean from Hamilton 
College, whose health gave out so that he left before 
the end of the year. Some friends — missionaries 
in Persia — came in September to spend the night 
with us, and that night one of the children came 
down with what proved to be typhoid fever. It was 
nine weeks before they could leave us, happily all 
well. It was during this autumn that began the 
stream of distinguished English visitors to the Col- 
lege, which continued for twenty-five years, bring- 
ing us into acquaintance with many of the leading 
statesmen and philanthropists of England. Lord 
Campbell and Lady Strangford were among the 
first. She was especially interested in the people 
of the Balkan Peninsula, and the College was al- 
ready known in Europe for its connection with the 
Bulgarians. The winter passed quietly at the Col- 
lege, although every one saw that a storm was gath- 
ering all about us which would bring changes of 

102 



POLITICAL CRISIS IN TURKEY 



some kind, either for good or evil, and there was a 
constant exchange of notes between the Powers, 
which came to nothing. 

May 2, 1876, there was an insurrection in the 
mountain towns not far from Philippopolis in Bul- 
garia. It had been planned for several months, and 
the Turkish government was fully informed of the 
details of the plan and of those engaged in it. The 
Turkish governor at Philippopolis had implored 
the government at Constantinople to allow him to 
put a stop to it, and had promised to guarantee ab- 
solute quiet, if a single regiment of troops were sent 
to him. But the Turks anticipated a war with 
Servia and wished to find a pretext to terrorize this 
part of Bulgaria, which commanded the road to 
Servia, before the war broke out, so they had quietly 
fostered this revolutionary movement which was 
too insignificant to constitute any real danger. 
They had withdrawn their troops, but the whole 
Turkish population was armed, while the Chris- 
tians were unarmed, and all arrangements had 
been made to give over the Christian population to 
the tender mercies of the Turkish militia (Bashi- 
bozooks), having first, as far as possible, cut off all 
communication between Bulgaria and the outside 
world. The results are too well known to be de- 
tailed here. In these first massacres and the reign 
of terror which followed fifty or sixty thousand 
men, women and children were massacred in cold 
blood, sold as slaves or judicially murdered. It 
was the most natural thing in the world that in their 
terror and helplessness the Bulgarians should have 
thought of us, who had no political interests at stake, 

103 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

as friends whom they could trust to help them, and 
they found means to communicate to us the details 
of what was going on from week to week. At the 
outset we alone had these details, and what we did 
with them is no secret. It was no secret at the time 
that we first of all gave them to Sir Henry Elliott, the 
British ambassador, who was a warm personal 
friend of ours and who represented a government 
which was at that time the chief supporter of 
Turkey in Europe. We did this in the hope that 
he could make the Turks see that they were making 
a terrible mistake. We also communicated the facts 
to powerful friends in England and to our friends 
Mr. Pears, correspondent of the Daily News, and 
Mr. Galenga, the correspondent of the London 
Times. Could we have done less or acted more 
honorably ? It will be seen later on that Sir Henry 
Elliott was at this time engaged in a conspiracy 
which he regarded as likely to change the whole face 
•of affairs in Turkey. 

The day after the outbreak in Bulgaria, of which 
the world knew nothing, all Europe was startled by 
the murder of the French and German consuls at 
Salonica by a fanatical Mohammedan mob. This 
increased the excitement in Constantinople, which 
was already at fever heat, and when, a week later, 
a mob of thousands of Moslem theological students 
(softas) rushed through the streets of Stamboul on 
their way to the palace to demand the dismissal of 
the Grand Vizier and the Sheik-ul-Islam, the whole 
city realized that it was at the mercy of revolution- 
ists. The Sultan yielded to the demands of the mob, 
and another near neighbor of ours was made Grand 

104 



SULTAN ABD UL-AZIZ 



POLITICAL CRISIS IN TURKEY 

Vizier in place of Mahmoud Nedim. A little more 
than two weeks after this (May 30) the city was 
roused in the morning by the roar of cannon which 
announced the advent of a new Sultan, Murad. 
Abd-ul-Aziz had been dethroned in the night. 
This was the outcome of the conspiracy to which I 
have referred. The real leader in this was the Min- 
ister of War, Hussein Avni Pasha, supported by the 
new Grand Vizier, Mahomet Ruchdi Pasha, and 
the new Sheik-ul-Islam, who had given afetva (de- 
cision) authorizing the act. Kaisarli Achmet Pasha, 
the Minister of Marine, who controlled the iron- 
clads anchored before the palace, joined them. The 
supposed leader was Midhat Pasha, and it was 
through him that Sir Henry Elliott was brought into 
the plot and the support of England secured. Her 
Mediterranean fleet arrived off the Dardanelles the 
day before the act and was ready to come to Con- 
stantinople in case of need. Murad, the new Sul- 
tan, who lived in the palace with his uncle, had not 
been forewarned ; and, when he was taken by armed 
men, he believed that he was to be put to death. He 
never recovered from the shock sufficiently to as- 
sume any control of the government. The week 
which followed was one of wild excitement in the 
city, at first of joy and satisfaction, but as the days 
went on there was a decided reaction against the 
revolution among the Turks in favor of the old Sul- 
tan. At the close of the week it was suddenly an- 
nounced that Abd-ul-Aziz had committed suicide. 
Nobody believed it at the time; and after hearing all 
the evidence my own belief is that he was murdered 
by order of the new administration through fear of a 

105 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

counter-revolution, though Queen Victoria had tele- 
graphed to Sir Henry Elliott to protect his life. 

This was not the end of the tragedy. A few days 
later there was a council of ministers at the house 
of Midhat Pasha. A Circassian officer, whose sister 
had been a favorite of Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz, obtained 
admission to the house, entered the chamber and 
shot Hussein Avni Pasha and the Minister of For- 
eign Affairs, very nearly killed the Minister of Ma- 
rine and killed several of the attendants before he 
was captured. As the house had been left un- 
guarded and no attack was made upon Midhat 
Pasha, it was suspected at the time that he might 
have had knowledge of this attack, the result of 
which was to make him the principal power in the 
state. The officer was hanged without examination 
or trial. This new shock still further demoralized 
the Sultan and incapacitated him for all business. 
At the end of August, 1876, he also was deposed and 
his brother made Sultan. In this change also Sir 
Henry Elliott took the lead, and Abd-ul-Hamid be- 
came Sultan. His brother was kept a close prisoner 
until he died some thirty years later. Meanwhile 
Servia and Montenegro had declared war against 
Turkey in July, and the story of the Bulgarian mas- 
sacres had roused no little excitement in the Chris- 
tian world, especially in England, where it was felt 
that the English government was largely respon- 
sible for existing conditions in Turkey, — which, as 
we have seen, was true. 

During the spring and summer, while these events 
were taking place, there was a general feeling of in- 
security in Constantinople, and unpleasant incidents 

106 



POLITICAL CRISIS IN TURKEY 

were very frequent. We did not know what to ex- 
pect from one day to another, as the city was filled 
with half savage irregular troops who were under 
very little control. We were always on the watch, 
and one day the alarm was given that a large armed 
band was coming down upon the College from the 
hill above us. Happily the students were all in the 
building, and having given orders that no one should 
be seen at the windows and that all doors should be 
closed, Dr. Long and I went out unarmed to face 
the mob, who were already entering our grounds. 
They were Turks, mostly young, who had come 
several miles from the Arsenal on the Golden Horn 
to make an end of the Bulgarians. It was a trying 
quarter of an hour that we had, not to be forgotten; 
but they were evidently puzzled by finding no one 
but two foreigners, who met them without any ap- 
pearance of fear and quietly explained to them that 
they were trespassing on our ground. If they had 
had an enterprising and fearless leader I do not 
know what would have happened, but it was a mob 
without leaders; and when they came to face us and 
our authority, their courage failed them, and in the 
course of half an hour we had won the day. Extraor- 
dinary stories are current in America of the de- 
vices which we resorted to in defense of the College 
during this and the following year, such as that we 
met a night attack by parading a skeleton rubbed 
with phosphorus. There is no truth in this or any 
of these stories. Another incident, which was char- 
acteristic of the unsettled conditions of the time, 
occurred in June, 1876. I was sitting in my office 
one evening when a servant came to say that a 

107 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

Turkish pasha begged to see me. He had just 
arrived on horseback. I invited him in. He proved 
to be a fine looking, well-dressed gentleman, per- 
haps fifty years old. He introduced himself as 
Ibrahim Pasha, and after the usual exchange of 
compliments he told me that he had just escaped 
assassination and come to take refuge in the College. 
Would I protect him? I bid him welcome, gave 
him dinner and a bed, but I reminded him that, 
although this was American territory, the authori- 
ties could apply to the American minister and he 
would have to give him up. I excused myself and 
went over to see Achmet Vefik Pasha, to see what 
he knew of the man and what he would advise me 
to do. He knew all about the man and advised me 
to send him to take refuge in the British Embassy at 
Therapia. I proposed this to Ibrahim Pasha, and 
he agreed to do it; so I gave him a letter to the am- 
bassador and he started in the early morning, but 
he never reached the Embassy, and I could never 
find out what became of him. Probably the author- 
ities were on the watch for him. It is not uncom- 
mon for people to disappear in Constantinople. 

While these things were happening in Constan- 
tinople the reign of terror continued in Bulgaria, and 
we communicated information about it to Sir Henry 
Elliott and to our friends in England. The Turkish 
government denied the truth of these statements to 
Sir Henry, and, in the confusion which prevailed 
here at that time, it is very likely that the govern- 
ment really knew very little of what was going on in 
Bulgaria. It was under Abd-ul-Aziz that the mas- 
sacres were planned and commenced. But we had 

108 



POLITICAL CRISIS IN TURKEY 

to face a more serious difficulty. It was to be ex- 
pected that the Turks would deny everything ; but 
Mr. Disraeli, the English Prime Minister, declared 
in Parliament that the reports, for some of which we 
were responsible and which he must have known 
came from us, were "mere coffee house babble" 
and without any foundation — that he had official 
information to this effect. We begged Sir Henry 
Elliott to send one of his own secretaries to Bulgaria 
to investigate and report to him. After excusing 
himself for some time he sent for me one day and 
told me that he had at last received orders to do so, 
and that he would send Mr. Baring down to see me 
before he started, which he did. But before that I 
had learned from Sir Henry himself that he was not 
only sending his youngest secretary, who knew but 
little of the country and none of the languages, with- 
out any interpreter who knew Bulgarian, but that 
he was to get his information from the Turkish 
authorities and to be in the country only two or 
three days. I protested in vain, although Mr. Bar- 
ing agreed with me. Sir Henry told me that he was 
acting under instructions from home. This made it 
clear that there was to be no real investigation, and 
what was wanted by Mr. Disraeli was an official re- 
port to confirm his statements that nothing serious 
had happened in Bulgaria. There was nothing left 
for us to do but to defend our honor and our verac- 
ity as best we could. I went at once to Mr. May- 
nard, explained the situation to him and begged him 
to send Mr. Schuyler, who had just arrived in Con- 
stantinople as secretary of the Legation and consul 
general, to make an independent and impartial in- 

109 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

vestigation of the situation in Bulgaria with proper 
interpreters for Turkish, Bulgarian and Greek. He 
said that he had no authority to do this, but that, if I 
could persuade Mr. Schuyler to go, he would find a 
way to send him. I found it easy to persuade Mr. 
Schuyler, and he left Constantinople with his inter- 
preters the day after Mr. Baring, overtaking him at 
Adrianople. Mr. Baring was an honest man, and I 
do not think that he was sorry to find himself 
checkmated at the beginning of the game. He saw 
at once that Mr. Schuyler's report would be ac- 
cepted and believed by all the world. I do not know 
what report Mr. Disraeli got. He did not publish 
it; but the first result of Mr. Schuyler's preliminary 
report, made in ten days, was to convert Mr. Glad- 
stone and make him the leader in the great agita- 
tion which finally overthrew the Disraeli govern- 
ment, and which before that led to the Conference 
of Constantinople. Mr. Baring went with Mr. 
Schuyler to Batak,and saw with his own eyes the un- 
buried bodies of some five thousand men, women 
and children who had been slaughtered in this one 
town, far from the seat of the insurrection. Our 
graduate Mr. Peter Dimitroff went with Mr. Schuy- 
ler as his Bulgarian interpreter. Could we have 
done less than this under the circumstances ? It did 
not in any way interrupt our friendly relations with 
Sir Henry Elliott, who never charged us with having 
any political aims in view. In the summer vacation 
Mrs. Washburn and I went to the Engadine to re- 
cruit my health, and Professor Panaretoff, who was 
with us, improved the opportunity to go to England 
and see our friends there. He was in the Speaker's 

110 



POLITICAL CRISIS IN TURKEY 

Gallery in the House of Commons and heard the 
last speech made by Mr. Disraeli, before his pro- 
motion to the House of Lords. It was on the ques- 
tion of the Bulgarian massacres. 

I do not think that the Turkish authorities ever 
thought of the College in those troublous times, al- 
though Mahomet Ruchdi Pasha, the Grand Vizier, 
was our near neighbor, and Midhat Pasha was often at 
his house. Dr. Long had known the latter very well 
when he was in Bulgaria, and Midhat was himself a 
Bulgarian by race and birth, but a Pomak or Mo- 
hammedan Bulgarian. Sir Henry Elliott's faith in 
him was absolute, and it is true that he had been re- 
markably successful as a provincial governor in 
Bulgaria and in Bagdad. I once spent two days 
with him on an Austrian steamer, and we discussed 
Turkey most of the time. He was a very remark- 
able conversationalist, and his head was full of 
schemes of reform. I am free to confess that he 
captivated me; but Dr. Long did not believe in his 
capacity to reform the empire. He certainly failed, 
and, at the time of his greatest power, he failed to 
organize any party to support him and failed to get 
the confidence of the Sultan whom he had put on 
the throne. He was finally exiled to Arabia and 
assassinated. 

To return to what is more strictly the history of 
the College. Mr. Robert remained in Europe until 
the end of October, 1875. Very soon after his re- 
turn to America it was evident from his letters that 
he was very much tried by the financial conditions 
there, as well as by the political situation at Con- 
stantinople. His letters were full of exhortations to 

111 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

economy and to caution about mixing in political 
affairs. His advice was good, and we did our best 
to follow it. Some of the things which we did in the 
spring alarmed him, and he was evidently in doubt 
whether to adopt Dr. Hamlin's opinions or ours 
about Turkish affairs. We told him everything, and, 
in the end, he thanked God that we had been able 
to do something for the Bulgarians, of a sort which 
the founders of the College had never dreamed of. 
In the spring of 1876 we had a visit from Rev. Dr. 
David B. Coe, one of the trustees, who had been 
the secretary of the Board from the beginning, and 
who was the chief support of the College after Mr. 
Robert's death — a man of admirable spirit and 
great practical wisdom. One of the amusing inci- 
dents of the year was the arrival of a consignment 
of codfish from New York. Mr. Robert had in- 
terested himself while here in the students' table and 
it appears had concluded that Yankee codfish balls 
ought to be an acceptable addition to their diet. 
Mrs. Washburn superintended the Armenian cook 
so that we produced the genuine article, and I made 
a speech at the table in honor of Mr. Robert and the 
dish; but, alas ! we discovered that early education 
was necessary to an appreciation of this national 
dainty — and most of the codfish was disposed of 
to American families. 

One of the most welcome results of the political 
troubles here was the arrival of American war ves- 
sels, sent here by our government for the protection 
of its Legation. At different times the Vandalia, 
the Quinnebaug, the Gettysburg, the Wyoming, 
the Despatch, the Marion, were here, sometimes two 

112 



POLITICAL CRISIS IN TURKEY 

or three at once. Their presence here was an assur- 
ance of protection, and it was a joy to see the Ameri- 
can flag on the Bosphorus. We were not so proud 
of the ships as we were of the officers. We saw much 
of them. Like our great generals who have visited 
Constantinople, and unlike some of our civil repre- 
sentatives, they were interested in us because we 
were Americans, and I have been a firm believer in 
the navy ever since. To many of them we were 
under special obligations. 

As the year went on and the political troubles in- 
creased the number of our students diminished. At 
the end of the year the number of boarders had 
fallen from 137 to 111. One hundred and forty in 
all were present at the close. Some of the Bulga- 
rians were unable to return home on account of the 
state of the country, and we had to keep and protect 
ten or twelve of them at the College during the long 
summer vacation. As we could not suddenly reduce 
our expenses to any great extent, the loss on the 
current expense account was heavier than for any 
previous year, amounting here and in America to 
sixty-five hundred dollars. As Mr. Robert's private 
income had been seriously reduced during the year, 
this must have been a severe trial to him, but he did 
not complain. He exhorted us to have faith in the 
future. We arranged to reduce our expenses for the 
following year by taking Dr. Long and his family to 
live with us in the College, while Professor Grosve- 
nor moved into the house in Hissar belonging to 
us. The change was made in July, so that Dr. Long 
looked after the College and the students remaining 
there during the vacation, while I was in Switzer- 

113 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

land. Mr. Robert had insisted on my taking this 
trip and had sent me the money for my expenses. 

The Senior class held together to the end of the 
year, and there were 15 graduates, the largest num- 
ber since the opening of the College. One of them 
took the degree of B.S. ; 7 were Bulgarians, 7 Ar- 
menians, and 1 Greek. Twelve of them are still 
living (1907). All of the Bulgarians became dis- 
tinguished men, four of them as soldiers. Two of 
them commanded regiments in the famous battle 
of Slivnitza, one of whom was killed. His name was 
Marinoff, one of the most attractive men who ever 
graduated at the College. The other died in 1902 
as Minister of Public Works in Bulgaria. The 
other two are among the best officers in the Bulga- 
rian army to-day, one of them a general. Of the 
others one is a physician, one is judge of the Court 
of Appeals at Sophia and one was secretary of the 
same court. The Greek is a successful physician 
in Constantinople. Of the Armenians three are 
merchants, one in Chicago, one in England and one 
in Constantinople. One is the head of the Society 
for Ethical Culture in Chicago, one is a clergyman, 
and two are physicians. One of them is one of the 
leaders of his profession in Constantinople. 



114 



CHAPTER IX 



THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 1876-1877 

When I returned from Switzerland in September, 
1876, I found a new Sultan on the throne. Murad 
had been deposed and his brother Abd-ul-Hamid 
installed in his place chiefly through the influence of 
Midhat Pasha and Sir Henry Elliott. Very little 
was known about him even by the Turks, but he 
was supposed to be a quiet, unobtrusive man with 
little knowledge of political affairs, who would be a 
tool in the hands of the conspirators who had de- 
posed his uncle and his brother. It was not long 
before they and the world were undeceived. 

The College opened with 83 boarders, 27 of 
whom were Bulgarians, and 27 day scholars, 110 in 
all. Ten more Bulgarians came later, but other 
students left so that the number at the end of the 
year was still 110, in place of 140 at the close of the 
preceding year. It was much better than we had 
feared. We were not able to make any essential re- 
ductions in our staff of teachers. Professor Pana- 
retoff returned with us, and, although his presence 
in London had attracted some attention and had 
alarmed Mr. Robert, nothing was ever said to us 
about it here. The Turks were too much taken up 
with their own affairs to trouble themselves about 
him. One of the most serious of their troubles was 
financial. They had destroyed their credit by going 

115 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

into practical bankruptcy and could borrow no 
money and were forced to resort to the issue of an 
irredeemable paper currency (caime). It was the 
financial condition of the country, even more than 
the unsettled political condition, which reduced the 
number of our students, for people generally re- 
garded Robert College as about the safest place in 
Constantinople. The Turks set traps for us now 
and then, during this and the following years, to 
test our loyalty ; but, as we never walked into them, 
they found nothing to complain of. 

In the war with Servia the Turks were successful 
in spite of the fact that a large number of Russian 
officers and soldiers had been allowed by their gov- 
ernment to go to aid the Servians. The Turkish 
armies were arrested only by the direct intervention 
of Russia and the threat of war. The Great Powers 
finally agreed to call a European conference to meet 
at Constantinople to consider the situation and in- 
duce the Turkish government to agree to such re- 
forms as would satisfy the people of European 
Turkey and prevent a war, which might involve 
all Europe. 

This conference was for many reasons a matter 
of the greatest interest to the College. If successful 
it would insure a long period of peace to Turkey 
and quiet and prosperity to the European prov- 
inces. It would check any advance of Russia, and 
give the Bulgarians a chance to educate the nation. 
We were brought into somewhat intimate relations 
with it by the fact that England had been a leader in 
the plan of the Conference and that her representa- 
tives believed that we knew more of the people and 

116 



SULTAN ABD-UL-HAMID 



THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR 

the situation in Bulgaria than any one else in Con- 
stantinople. Lord Salisbury and Sir Henry Elliott 
were the English delegates, and two of the men who 
came with Lord Salisbury were in later years am- 
bassadors here, Lord Curry and Sir William White. 
Admiral Sir John Hay was also here. The delegates 
gathered here early in December, 1876, and had a 
number of informal sessions, to see if they could 
come to an agreement among themselves before 
meeting with the Turkish delegates. The antici- 
pated antagonism between Lord Salisbury and 
General IgnatiefT, the Russian delegate, did not ap- 
pear. They worked together all through the Con- 
ference, and reached a plan which, if it had been 
accepted by the Turks, would have brought peace 
and prosperity to the empire. Unhappily Sir Henry 
Elliott did not agree with Lord Salisbury, as he told 
me himself, and, perhaps unconsciously, he en- 
couraged the Turks to resist. The full Conference 
met December 23. Midhat Pasha had prepared a 
coup de theatre for the occasion. The Conference 
was formally opened and discussions about to begin 
when it was interrupted by the roar of cannon; and 
the Turkish president of the Conference, Safvet 
Pasha, rose and declared that "these guns an- 
nounced the promulgation of a constitution, a 
change in a form of government which had lasted 
six hundred years and inaugurated a new era of 
prosperity for the Ottoman people." There was no 
longer any need of a conference. All the people of 
Turkey were to enjoy far more than the Conference 
was prepared to ask for the European provinces. 
The Conference did not accept this view because it 

117 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

offered no guarantee for the carrying out of reforms. 
The session continued, and the delegates gave up 
one demand after another until the scheme was of 
little account, but the Turks refused to accept any- 
thing ; the Conference adjourned, and all the Great 
Powers recalled their ambassadors and broke off 
relations with the Sultan. The Turks, before the 
final refusal to accept, went through the farce of 
calling an assembly of the Turkish notables and 
the heads of the Christian communities to express 
an opinion. The Bulgarian Exarch refused to at- 
tend on the ground that he was ill. The Vekil of 
the Protestant community was the only one present 
who dared to speak of the danger of refusal and to 
advise caution. The man in the street, whether 
Turk or Christian or Jew, was equally careful to 
express nothing but joy at the new Constitution. 

The Constitution was full of sonorous words and 
phrases, borrowed from similar documents, but was 
altogether worthless as a charter of liberty and not 
adapted to the conditions of the country. Only six 
weeks after its promulgation Midhat Pasha was 
summoned to the Palace in the middle of the night, 
seized there, put on board of a steamer and shipped 
out of the country in disgrace, to Brindisi in Italy, 
nominally under a provision of his own constitution. 
However, the promised Parliament — a Senate ap- 
pointed by the Sultan and a House of Deputies 
chosen in various fashions in different provinces by 
the people — did meet six weeks after the exile of 
Midhat and was opened by the Sultan in person, 
March 19, 1877. Our friend Achmet Vefik Pasha was 
chosen president of the lower house, and there were 

118 



THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR 

a number of members whose independence and 
good sense astonished every one, but it was a unique 
assembly. I attended one of the sessions. Among 
other incidents a green- turbaned descendant of the 
Prophet interrupted a speaker and was called to 
order twice, with no result. When Achmet Vefik 
Pasha roared at him, "Sous eshek" (Shut up, you 
donkey), he dropped into his seat as though he had 
been shot. The Parliament was altogether too in- 
dependent and was dissolved June 28, 1877. 
Another was chosen six months later which made 
itself still more disagreeable, and that was the end. 
The failure of the Conference was a disappointment 
to us at the College, and, as we believed, a misfor- 
tune for Turkey. We also believed that it would be 
better for the Bulgarians to be gradually emanci- 
pated. I am of the same opinion to-day. What- 
ever influence we had at the Conference was ex- 
erted with this in view. All that we did was in the 
interest of peace. The failure of the Conference 
meant war. A distinguished member of the Ulema 
explained to me at the time that the difficulty was 
that the government had stirred up the fanaticism 
of the people and had found it impossible to explain 
to the rank and file the necessity of yielding to the 
demands of infidel Europe. 

Painful negotiations between the Powers fol- 
lowed the failure of the Conference, and war was not 
declared by Russia until April 29, 1877. The Eng- 
lish government was unwilling to permit Russia to 
act in the spirit of the Conference and coerce the 
Turks; but the Bulgarian massacres had roused 
public opinion in England to such a pitch of hostil- 

119 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

ity to Turkey that the government did not dare to 
protect her openly. Austria also had to be bought 
over to the side of Russia by the promise of Bosnia 
and Herzegovina. England and Austria both stipu- 
lated that Russia should not occupy Constantinople. 

It does not come within the scope of this history 
to narrate the events of the Russo-Turkish War. 
At the outset the Turks had the advantage, and, if 
the Sultan had not attempted to direct the armies 
from his palace and had given the supreme com- 
mand to any one of two or three of his generals, the 
Russians would have been miserably defeated, the 
first year at least; but Suleiman Pasha with the 
best of the Turkish troops was kept in Montenegro 
to be beaten by those mountaineers, while the 
troops who should have united against the Russians 
in Bulgaria were commanded by generals who did 
not work in harmony. The Russians were alto- 
gether unprepared for war, and the government had 
been forced into it by public opinion. The excite- 
ment in Constantinople during the spring and sum- 
mer was intense, and the whole Mohammedan popu- 
lation of the empire was roused to defend the faith 
against their old enemy. The Christians did not 
know which to fear most, a great defeat or a great 
victory for the Turks. Our students shared in this 
excitement, especially as nearly half of our board- 
ers were Bulgarians; but the College was never mo- 
lested in any way, and we did our best to keep the 
students occupied with their studies. 

At one time there were reports of a great Russian 
victory, and there was great alarm among the more 
ignorant Turks in the city. One day the wife of the 

120 



THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR 

imam of the quarter next the College came to me 
in great excitement and told me that the Russians 
were coming and would certainly murder them all. 
She came in the name of the women of Hissar to 
know if we would take them all into the College and 
protect them against the Russians. I told her that 
we would, and that she would find the American flag 
a sure protection. She went away comforted. It was 
very fortunate for us during the excitement of the 
war that our neighbors were friendly. At one time 
they took pains to warn us that it would be danger- 
ous for a few days for our Bulgarian students to 
leave the college grounds. 

We were greatly indebted to the officers of the 
Vandalia for the interest which they took in the Col- 
lege at this time. Their frequent visits were a boon 
to us in many ways. One evening Lieutenant 
Danenhower brought up some twenty sailors, who 
gave the students a negro minstrel concert, closing 
with a tableau of the Goddess of Liberty supported 
by the army and navy. It was a great success, and 
the sailors spent the night at the College. Another 
day they came up for a baseball match. These 
things were a great relief to the strain under which 
the students lived. The College was also a centre to 
which all visitors, English and American, to Con- 
stantinople came for information. Mr. Maynard, 
Mr. Schuyler and Mr. Tuckerman, minister to 
Greece, were also constant visitors, and they gave 
lectures to the students on various subjects. 

The fall of Midhat Pasha made it impossible for 
Sir Henry Elliott to return to the British Embassy 
here, and Sir A. Henry Layard was sent to take his 

121 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

place. He had been here in the time of Lord Strat- 
ford, before he became famous for his work in 
Babylonia, and he was welcomed by the Turks as 
an old friend and a well-known Turcophile. He 
was also a devoted friend of ours, which at that 
time was most fortunate for us. Dr. Long and I 
continued to conduct the Sunday services at the 
British Embassy in Therapia as we had done for sev- 
eral years in the summer months under Sir Henry 
Elliott. A good many Turks at that time gave us 
the credit of having brought on the war, and Sir 
Henry Layard improved a favorable opportunity 
to ask the Sultan and the Grand Vizier whether they 
had any complaints to make of Robert College. 
Both of them assured him that they were perfectly 
satisfied that neither the College nor any of its stu- 
dents had ever done anything to encourage rebellion 
in Bulgaria. This was the simple truth. It was a 
relief to know that it was acknowledged to be true 
by the Sultan. Sir Henry Layard represented here 
the pro-Turkish and anti-Russian policy of Lord 
Beaconsfield, and his relations with the Sultan were 
more intimate than those of any other ambassador 
before or since. He was consequently in a position 
to mitigate, in some measure, the severity of the 
treatment of the Bulgarians by the Turkish author- 
ities. We were able through his influence to save 
some lives in Bulgaria of old students and others. 
In one important case, however, we had an illustra- 
tion of the difficulty of accomplishing anything 
under the Turkish administration. There were 
some fifty Bulgarians, some of them educated gen- 
tlemen and friends of ours, who were in imprison- 
ing 



THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR 

ment or exile, mostly in Mesopotamia and Syria. 
Some had been there for years. They had never 
been tried, but had been arrested and sent off on 
suspicion, simply because they were more intelli- 
gent than others. They had never been told what 
their offense was supposed to be. Before the Rus- 
sians crossed the Danube it was a time when it was 
the policy of the Turks to conciliate the Bulgarians, 
and we represented the case of these Bulgarians to 
Mr. Layard, giving a detailed statement of each 
case. He saw the point and took our paper to the 
Sultan, who also saw the point and in Mr. Layard's 
presence ordered the immediate release of these 
men. Nothing was done, and Mr. Layard again 
spoke to the Sultan. He immediately summoned 
the officer to whom he had given orders and asked 
why his orders had not been carried out. It was 
said that they had not yet verified the statements 
in our paper. Again he gave orders and again 
nothing was done. A third time Mr. Layard called 
the Sultan's attention to the matter. He got this 
answer, " Have I not given you my word ? " No- 
thing was ever done until the Russians at San 
Stefano secured their release. 

We had troubles of our own in the College during 
the year, two cases of scarlet fever and a case of 
chicken pox, and at that time we had no doctor 
within five miles and no trained nurse or proper 
hospital. It was due to the devotion of the teach- 
ers and one of the students that we escaped an epi- 
demic. In June Dr. Long had to go to America to 
bring home his eldest daughter, who was seriously 
ill. Professor Grosvenor was ill for some time, and 

123 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

I was not in good health at any time during the 
year. Then we were perplexed as to what policy we 
ought to pursue in regard to the College. The 
Lycee of Galata Serai and the national schools in 
Constantinople were closed soon after the out- 
break of war. For a time Mr. Robert was in favor 
of closing, and the question came up as to what 
would be done with the building in that case. 
Could it be used as a hospital ? Would the United 
States minister be willing to occupy it officially, or 
the consul general? It was our opinion that we 
should not close the College, whatever might hap- 
pen, unless forced to do so by the Turkish govern- 
ment, a contingency which we had no reason to 
anticipate. Mr. Robert finally accepted this view, 
although it seemed very doubtful whether we 
should have many students. Another important 
question was brought up during the year by Pro- 
fessor Grosvenor. He was an enthusiastic Greek 
scholar and more interested in the Greeks than the 
Bulgarians. He wrote very strongly to Mr. Robert 
as to the weakness of our Greek Department and 
attributed to this the small number of our Greek stu- 
dents. We had only seven Greek boarders and four 
day scholars. His criticism of the department was 
just. We had one Greek professor, learned, but a poor 
teacher, who was of very little use to the students. 
We dismissed him at the end of the year and found 
it very difficult to get another. In fact the Greeks 
who were here did not come here for Greek, but for 
English and for a general education, and objected 
to studying Greek. The real reason why we had so 
few was that Robert College was looked upon by the 

124 



THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR 

Greeks as a Bulgarian college and they detested the 
Bulgarians. I was often told this in so many words. 
Still Professor Grosvenor was right in principle, and 
we never reached the Greeks to any extent until we 
found our present Greek professor, Professor Eliou, 
and through him were able to make this depart- 
ment equal to a Greek gymnasium. We now have 
six Greek teachers. The trouble in 1877 was that 
we had no money to expend in experiments. 

Our Commencement exercises at the close of the 
year were an agreeable disappointment to us. It 
seemed doubtful whether, in the existing state of 
feeling in the city, it would be wise to have public 
exercises and whether any one would come if we did. 
The prize speaking on Wednesday and the public 
debate in the evening brought together large audi- 
ences, although the day was very hot and sultry. 
The debate on the question, "Has war produced 
more good than evil in the world ?" interested the 
students very much and justified their choice of this 
subject. Thursday was a beautiful day, and the 
study hall was crowded to its utmost capacity with 
a distinguished audience. The orations were good 
and the speeches made by our guests excellent, as 
well as judicious, which was very important at that 
time. The Turkish representative of the govern- 
ment, a member of the Council of Public Instruc- 
tion, declared that they held the College in the high- 
est esteem and wished it all possible success. After 
the exercises we gave a luncheon to two hundred 
of the guests. 

The graduating class numbered 14, of whom 10 
are now living (1907). Five were Bulgarians, 6 

125 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

Armenians, 2 Greeks, and 1 was an Englishman. 
Two of the Bulgarians have occupied high official 
positions, 2 have been teachers and literary men, 
1 a successful merchant; 3 of the Armenians, the 
Englishman and the Greeks have been merchants; 1 
of the Armenians is now a professor in Robert Col- 
lege, 1 died soon after graduation. 

Many of our Bulgarians could not go home or 
even leave the college grounds. The feeling against 
them was more bitter than ever. General Gourco's 
foolish, unsupported raid across the Balkans and 
occupation of Eski Zagra, with the atrocities com- 
mitted on the Turks there, had been terribly re- 
venged by Suleiman Pasha, who had been recalled 
from Montenegro, with thousands of Bulgarians 
slaughtered and the town destroyed. Both events 
had increased the desire for vengeance among the 
Turks here. So Mrs. Washburn and I spent the 
summer in the College to protect the students who 
remained there. It was well for us that we had 
American men of war in the harbor, and that the 
officers and Mr. Maynard were frequent visitors at 
the College. As it was we had no serious difficulties of 
any kind. Dr. Long's wife and daughters lived with 
us. The deficit for the year on the current expense 
account here and in America was eighty-six hun- 
dred and twenty dollars, two thousand dollars 
more than the preceding year. 



126 



CHAPTER X 



THE RUSSIANS AT SAN STEFANO. 1877-1878 

The College opened September 18, 1877, with 69 
boarders and 26 day scholars. Thirty-nine of the 
boarders were Bulgarians. At the close of this year 
there were 80 boarders, of whom 44 were Bulga- 
rians and 28 day scholars. Dr. Long returned 
from America September 21 and was in charge of 
the College as acting director during the year. 
Mrs. Washburn and I left for America September 
26, my health having given out. I was suffering 
from nervous prostration. Professor Panaretoff had 
gone to Europe for the summer vacation and could 
not return on account of the violent persecution 
of all Bulgarians who came within the reach of the 
Turkish authorities here. The arrival of the Rus- 
sians at San Stefano in March put an end to 
this, and Professor Panaretoff returned for the rest 
of the year. Mr. Slaveikoff had done his work up 
to this time, when he left the College and accepted 
a place on the staff of one of the Russian generals. 
Similar positions were already filled by several 
of our former students. Mr. Ludskanoff of the 
class of 1875 had greatly distinguished himself on 
the staff of General Skobeleff, who spoke of him to 
me in the highest terms. The necessity of such ap- 
pointments grew out of the ignorance of the lan- 
guage of the country by the Russians, and the pres- 

127 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

ence of a large number of Bulgarian volunteers in 
the Russian army. Two new tutors arrived in 
September, Messrs. Truax and Nash, both of whom 
in later years distinguished themselves in America, 
the first as a lawyer in New York and the second as 
a theological professor in California. 

It was near the beginning of this year that 
the prospects of the war began to change in 
favor of the Russians both in Europe and Asia. 
The condition of the Russian armies had steadily 
improved, and the Roumanians had joined them in 
Bulgaria, while the Turkish armies were steadily 
deteriorating, through the weakness of the govern- 
ment at Constantinople. We cannot follow the 
course of the war in the field. We have only to do 
with events at Constantinople. After the fall of 
Plevna, the terrible winter passage of the Balkans 
and the rout of the Turkish army in the bloody 
battle of Shenova, the Russians pressed on to Con- 
stantinople, sweeping everything before them. The 
Turkish population of the country fled in terror, 
believing that the Russians and Bulgarians would 
avenge the massacre of the Bulgarians by a general 
slaughter of the Turks. It would require the pen of a 
De Quincey to picture the horrors of that winter 
exodus. I have heard the number of those who died 
on the road and in the streets of Constantinople esti- 
mated at a hundred thousand, but no one will ever 
know whether it was more or less. General Skobeleff , 
who commanded the advance guard of the Russians, 
related tome one incident of his own experience which 
may illustrate faintly the nature of this flight. It 
was between Philippopolis and Adrianople that he 

128 



THE RUSSIANS AT SAN STEFANO 

unexpectedly heard the sound of guns and hastened 
to the front. It was at a place where two rivers came 
together, and crowded in between them were an im- 
mense number of carts and some thousands of 
Turks, men, women and children. He ordered his 
troops to retire and rode forward himself to assure 
the refugees that they had nothing to fear; but he 
could not approach them as they persistently fired 
upon him, so he waited until they could get away. 
When he finally started at the head of a regiment of 
Cossacks he soon saw a baby by the roadside. He 
ordered a soldier to pick it up, and before he reached 
the next town nearly every soldier in the regiment 
had a child in his arms, which had been thrown 
away by its parents in their mad flight. At this 
town he seized a sufficient number of carts to carry 
these children to a Turkish village in the mountains 
where there was hope that the people might feed 
them. What their fate was he could not tell. It was 
reported from other sources that some two thousand 
children were thrown by their parents into the rivers, 
and that their bodies actually dammed the streams. 
It was said that the whole line of the railway from 
Adrianople was marked by the corpses of those 
who had fallen from the trains, too nearly frozen to 
keep their hold on the tops and sides of the cars. 
Great numbers starved to death with cold and hun- 
ger on the roads through the desolate country this 
side of Adrianople. Including the disbanded troops 
it was estimated that some three hundred thousand 
reached Constantinople in such a piteous state that, 
instead of plundering the unprotected city, they 
lay down and died in the streets and mosques. 

129 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

Typhus fever and smallpox raged among them and 
infected the city. There was a scarcity of food and 
of places to shelter them. It was altogether the most 
terrible experience that Constantinople had wit- 
nessed since the Turkish conquest. It was in the 
midst of these scenes that the new Parliament, 
chosen in some fashion, was holding its sessions, 
and it astonished every one by suddenly rousing it- 
self and passing a vote of censure on the ministers. 
The ministers resigned, and the Sultan, without any 
apparent reason, abolished the office of Grand 
Vizier, appointed our friend Achmet Vefik Pasha 
Prime Minister, and ordered him to form a homo- 
geneous ministry. Three months later, after he had 
been ignominiously dismissed, he told me many 
things in regard to his experiences. He found it 
almost impossible to transact business with the 
Sultan, and at times for two or three days together 
he seemed to be out of his mind. He trusted no one 
and really allowed the ministers no initiative in any 
business. But one thing Achmet Vefik Pasha ac- 
complished with the aid of Sir Henry Layard which 
was of vital importance. When the Russians ap- 
proached Constantinople the Sultan determined to 
retire to Brousa, the old Turkish capital, and gave 
orders accordingly. If he had done so the probabil- 
ity is that he would never have returned. They 
finally persuaded him to abandon the project. The 
story is that Sir Henry literally went down on his 
knees to the Sultan, but I do not know whether this 
is true. Certainly he did metaphorically. The 
Parliament was dispersed, many of the members 
escaped from the country, others were imprisoned, 

130 



THE RUSSIANS AT SAN STEFANO 

and that was the end of the Constitution. It was 
never formally revoked, but died a natural death. 
It was originally decreed by absolute power, simply 
to checkmate the European Powers, not because it 
was demanded by the people or adapted to the 
wants of the country, and it had never in any way 
limited the autocracy of the Sultan. He had made 
the war of his own will and he made peace in his 
own way. 

With the arrival of the Russian army came the 
English fleet, which had nominally forced the pas- 
sage of the Dardanelles in defiance of treaties, and 
hoped to prevent the occupation of Constanti- 
nople by the Russians. It was not war but a threat 
of war. So far as the Turks were concerned there 
was nothing to prevent the Russians entering the 
city without firing a shot. General Grant, who 
was here a little later, was in St. Petersburg at this 
time, and he told this story on the authority of a 
high official there. "When the Grand Duke ar- 
rived at San Stefano he sent many telegrams to 
the Czar, among others this, 'We are in sight of 
St. Sophia. There are no troops between us and 
the city. Shall I enter and take possession?' All 
the other telegrams were answered at once. This 
one was not, in the full belief that the Grand Duke 
would understand that he was to take the respon- 
sibility himself and occupy the city. To the great 
disappointment of the Czar he did not." General 
Grant added that this seemed to him the greatest 
mistake the Russians had made. 

March 3, 1878, a treaty of peace was signed be- 
tween Russia and Turkey at San Stefano which 

131 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 



would have been final but for the attitude of Eng- 
land and Austria. For some time it looked as 
though war would result from this intervention, 
and during these months we received many visits 
from English and Russian officers, which puzzled 
us at first, but we soon discovered that it was a 
question of whether Russian batteries on the 
grounds of Robert College could prevent the British 
fleet from ascending the Bosphorus and entering 
the Black Sea to cut off the communication of the 
Russian armies. Dr. Long had information that a 
large force with heavy guns was not far away, and 
for a time was quite anxious about it. Happily we 
escaped this danger. The only occasion that we 
ever had to complain of the Russians grew out of 
what they had learned of Robert College in Bulga- 
ria. All the forces that returned to Russia were 
brought to Constantinople and sent home by sea, 
so that every transport passed the College, and when 
opposite us, if there was a band on board, it struck 
up some American tune and the men gave three 
cheers. We had to explain to General Skobeleff 
that while we were grateful for the interest they had 
in us, this manifestation of it was not likely to im- 
prove our relations with the Turks, and we begged 
that it might be dispensed with. The streets of 
Constantinople were full of Russian officers and 
soldiers as long as they were at San Stef ano, and 
we never heard of any conflicts between them and 
the Turks. 

The treaty of San Stefano was of course a hard 
one for Turkey, but it would have been better for 
England and for all the people of European Turkey 

132 



THE RUSSIANS AT SAN STEFANO 

if it had been allowed to stand, and far better for the 
Armenians of Asia. The Sultan himself had no 
reason to thank England or Austria for their inter- 
vention. The secret convention by which England 
acquired Cyprus was little better than a theatrical 
trick of Lord Beaconsfield's. It interested the Col- 
lege only in that the British government asked us 
to furnish them with officials from among our 
graduates. The treaty of Berlin, which was signed 
July 13, 1878, was one of the most important 
events of the nineteenth century in European his- 
tory, but it was not made in the interest of any one 
in the Turkish Empire. I do not know that it pro- 
fessed to be, although Lord Beaconsfield congratu- 
lated himself on having "consolidated" the em- 
pire, an euphemism for having reduced the size of 
it. Each Power sought only to further its own in- 
terests and ambitions; and for the people chiefly 
concerned the result has been a succession of wars, 
revolutions and massacres down to the present day. 
This is not the place to discuss this treaty, but we 
may take a single illustration from the people in 
whom the College was most interested at that time, 
the Bulgarians. The treaty of San Stefano had 
created a Bulgaria essentially on the lines agreed to 
by the Powers at the Conference of Constantinople. 
The treaty of Berlin divided the Bulgarians into 
five sections, giving one part to Servia, one to Rou- 
mania, one to an autonomous province called East- 
ern Roumelia, one to Turkey and one to constitute 
the Principality of Bulgaria under the suzerainty 
of the Sultan; and it was England especially that 
insisted upon this and also upon the right of Turkey 

133 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

to occupy and fortify the range of the Balkans, all 
with the object of making it impossible for the Bul- 
garians to form a viable state, which might be 
friendly to Russia. The Englishmen who knew 
Bulgaria, all our friends, understood the folly and 
wickedness of this at the time. All England has 
learned it since. Thus far the results have been the 
revolution of 1885, which resulted in the union of 
Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia, the war with 
Servia, the insurrection in Macedonia and the prov- 
ince of Adrianople, and all the massacres and un- 
speakable horrors of the last thirty-nine years in 
Macedonia, to say nothing of what Bulgaria has 
suffered from the intrigues of foreign Powers ever 
since the treaty of Berlin. The awful massacres 
and persecutions from which the Armenians have 
suffered since 1886 have been equally the result of 
this treaty. 

At the time, however, the advent of peace was a 
great boon to Constantinople and to the College, 
although we were brought into direct relations with 
an amount of human suffering on the part of the 
Turkish refugees from Bulgaria which was very 
distressing, and we found ourselves feeding and 
clothing some of the very people who had massacred 
the Bulgarians two years before. There were many 
of them quartered near the College, and a few re- 
main to this day (1907) still recipients of our char- 
ity. Some of them suffered great remorse for what 
they had done and felt that their present suffering 
was a just judgment of God, and most of those near 
us have proved to be very decent though very igno- 
rant people. Some have returned to Bulgaria. 

134 



THE RUSSIANS AT SAN STEFANO 



There was a severe shock of earthquake in Con- 
stantinople April 19, which alarmed the city and 
shook Hamlin Hall vigorously, but without doing 
any injury to the building or causing any loss of life 
in the city. People's minds were so much occupied 
with the political disturbances that the earthquake 
excited very little attention. 

Dr. Long proved himself a very efficient director 
of the College and a very wise representative of its 
interests in these troublous times, with our neigh- 
bors the Turks as well as at the embassies and with 
the government. It was due largely to him that 
the peace of the College was never disturbed and 
that none of our Bulgarian students were molested. 

I spent the year in America, and so far as my 
health permitted I devoted myself to raising money 
to aid those students who had been left in poverty 
by the massacres and the war in Bulgaria. Thanks 
to the kindness of many friends, especially in 
Boston and vicinity, I raised five thousand dollars 
for this purpose. We also received some money 
from friends in England. I often saw Mr. Robert 
during the year. He was in feeble health, and the 
doctors sent him to Europe in June, 1878; but his 
interest in the College never flagged, and his ina- 
bility to sufficiently endow it was a constant burden 
on his mind. The last time that we spoke about 
it the tears ran down his cheeks as he talked, but 
he had great faith in its future. I also visited Dr. 
Hamlin in Bangor. His heart was still in the Col- 
lege, but he altogether disapproved of everything 
which the College had done in connection with the 
Bulgarians, and thought that Dr. Long and I had 

135 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

very nearly, if not quite, put an end to its usefulness. 
I did not succeed in convincing him that times had 
changed since he left Constantinople. All the same, 
I had a very pleasant visit and, in spite of what he 
said, had very little doubt but that if he had been 
in our place he would have done very much the 
things that we did. 

The Commencement exercises took place in the 
middle of July, a few days after the signing of the 
treaty of Berlin, when the city was rejoicing in 
peace, and brought together quite a distinguished 
assembly. Mr. Maynard, the American minister, 
presided; Sir Henry Layard, the British ambassa- 
dor, made a speech; the Turkish government was 
represented by an officer who spoke in praise of the 
College; and the Armenian Patriarch sent his vicar 
to present his salutations and best wishes. It was a 
happy end of a very trying year, and all our students 
were able to return in peace to their homes. 

There were 8 in the graduating class, of whom 3 
were Bulgarians, 3 Armenians, 1 a Greek and 1 an 
Englishman. Only three of this class are still living 
(1907), two of them in Constantinople and one in 
New York. One of the Bulgarians was distin- 
guished as a jurist and a diplomatist, the other two 
were officers in the Bulgarian army. Of the others, 
two were in the civil service of the British govern- 
ment, one is a banker, one a merchant in Con- 
stantinople, and one an official in New York. 



136 



CHAPTER XI 



mr. Robert's death. 1878-1879 

This year marks the beginning of a new era in 
the history of the College. Mr. Robert died sud- 
denly in Paris, October 27, 1878. He had been in 
feeble health for some months, but his death was 
unexpected. He had written me a long letter on the 
25th and was about to return to America. His death 
left the College to stand or fall on its own merits. 
Up to this time he had controlled and supported it. 
Nothing had been done in the College without his 
knowledge and approval. In addition to weekly 
letters, monthly reports were made to him of every 
detail of expenditure and of every student in the 
College, and in return we received advice or instruc- 
tions from him in regard to everything. It is true 
that we did not always follow his advice or even 
obey his instructions; but in such cases we never 
failed to explain and justify our action by a full 
statement of our reasons, which he generally ac- 
cepted as satisfactory and always with a recogni- 
tion of the fact that he might be mistaken. The 
trustees in New York naturally left everything to 
him. We had no correspondence with them, and 
except Mr. Booth and Dr. Coe he seldom con- 
sulted them. They knew very little about the Col- 
lege. Whatever money was expended during these 
fifteen years for building, current expenses or 

137 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

any other purpose, he furnished. How much it 
amounted to I do not know, but it could not have 
been less than two hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
lars. This was not an ideal arrangement, and Mr. 
Robert's death left the College in a precarious posi- 
tion. But in reading the correspondence of those 
fifteen years I have been deeply impressed with its 
revelation of Mr. Robert's character, as a man 
whose chief end in life was to understand and do 
the will of God. He loved the College and cared 
for it as a shepherd might love and care for his 
master's flock, but it was not as his College. It 
was the Master's. He did not look upon those who 
were at work in the College as his servants, but with 
him fellow- servants of the Master. His experience 
in connection with the College seemed to develop a 
spirit of humility rather than pride and self-satis- 
faction, and as the years went on it was more and 
more a work of faith rather than self-confidence. 
It was God's work, and it would prosper. It should 
be remembered that he solemnly protested against 
having his name given to the College, and that he did 
everything in his power to induce others to share his 
interest and responsibility. He realized as fully as 
we did the dangers of the situation in which we 
might be left. He never drew upon the money in- 
vested for endowment to meet expenses, and he set 
apart a contingent fund himself which the trustees 
might use to meet any emergency in case of his 
death. Nothing tried his faith so sorely as Dr. 
Hamlin's failure to interest others in the College. 
He never blamed him, but he felt it to be a mys- 
terious dispensation of Providence, which he could 

138 



MR. ROBERT'S DEATH 

not understand, but which he must not allow to dis- 
turb his faith. 

When he died we found ourselves in possession of 
property in Constantinople valued at $150,000 

Endowment raised by Dr. Hamlin and 

invested 12,000 

Endowment given by Mr. Remington 

and invested ..... 5,000 

Contingent Fund — invested . . 10,000 

Total $177,000 

In his will he left the College the real estate that he 
owned at Lookout Mountain, where he had opened 
a school after the war, which we sold some years 
later for forty thousand dollars, and also one-fifth 
of his general estate. His will was contested by 
some members of his family, but finally, some years 
later, it was decided in favor of the College, and we 
received about one hundred thousand dollars as our 
one-fifth. 

The trustees to whom we were responsible were 
William A. Booth, President, Rev. Dr. D. B. Coe, 
Secretary, J. D. Vermilye, Treasurer, W. G. Lam- 
bert, A. S. Barnes and E. A. Brinkerhoff. 
Except the first two we had at this time no ac- 
quaintance with them, and they knew but little of 
us or our work. Mr. Merriman, who had been for 
some years Mr. Robert's private secretary, was the 
only other person in New York who had any per- 
sonal knowledge of the details of college affairs, and 
he continued to assist the treasurer for many years, 
being at the same time in the service of Mr. Robert's 

139 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

eldest son, who was the executor of his father's will 
and united with the College in defending it. 

It was of course impossible for the trustees to 
assume any such supervision of the College as Mr. 
Robert had carried on, but they realized their re- 
sponsibility for the property and legal status of the 
institution and did what they could to carry out the 
wishes of the Faculty; but we were made to under- 
stand that henceforth the fate of the College de- 
pended upon us and not upon them. They had 
appointed me president June 6, 1878, just before 
Mr. Robert left for Europe, and at our request Dr. 
Long was appointed vice-president. I find in the 
correspondence that they also appointed an advis- 
ory committee in Constantinople, consisting of the 
American minister, the American consul general 
and half a dozen missionaries, nominated by us; 
but I have no recollection of ever having called this 
committee together, and I suspect that it was even 
more short-lived than Dr. Hamlin's advisory com- 
mittee, although we often had occasion to seek the 
advice of individual members. 

Probably the most important act of the trustees 
during the year was the appointment of Rev. Alex- 
ander van Millingen as professor. He has been one 
of the main pillars of the College ever since. Born 
in Constantinople, educated in Scotland and a min- 
ister of the Free Church, the son of a distinguished 
English physician, who was one of the most note- 
worthy men in Constantinople during a long period 
of years, he has rendered invaluable service to the 
College and is recognized as the highest authority 
on the archaeology of Constantinople. Although 

140 



MR. ROBERT'S DEATH 

appointed during this year, he did not enter upon his 
work until the beginning of the next, having in the 
meantime married one of the most brilliant and at- 
tractive ladies in New Haven, Conn. 

The fact that Professor van Millingen's appoint- 
ment was made at the request of the Faculty is evi- 
dence that we had not lost our faith in the future of 
the College. In fact we felt that there was nothing 
for us to do but to go forward, trusting in God, 
and to make the College worthy of support. That 
meant progress and development. To remain sta- 
tionary meant failure, for the influence of the Col- 
lege had already created a demand for a higher and 
better education than any one in Turkey had 
thought of fifteen years before, and the new Bul- 
garia was crying out for thoroughly educated young 
men. We could not diminish our expenditure. We 
prepared to increase it. Only, as president of the 
College, I determined that we should keep out of 
debt and never spend money which was not in sight. 
We adhered to this principle, although we often had 
occasion to mourn over lost opportunities, or what 
seemed to be such, but I believe in the principle to- 
day as firmly as I did thirty years ago. I have al- 
ways looked upon this as God's work and felt that, 
if we did our duty in it, He would give us the means 
to carry it forward just as fast as He saw it to be 
best. 

When the College opened in September, 1878, the 
treaty of Berlin had been signed, but the condition 
of things in Constantinople and in the provinces 
was far from satisfactory. The Russian armies still 
occupied Bulgaria and were still encamped at San 

141 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

Stefano. The Turkish government was bankrupt 
and disorganized, the city was still full of starving 
refugees, and the irredeemable paper money was 
our only currency, so that business was stagnant. 
We could not hope for any immediate increase in 
the number of our students. The year opened with 
96 boarders and 38 day scholars, 134 in all, against 
108 at the close of the preceding year, which, all 
things considered, was encouraging. At the close of 
the year there were 103 boarders and 43 day schol- 
ars present. 

It was during this year that we published the first 
catalogue of the College. It was in the English 
language and designed for circulation in America 
rather than in Turkey. Statements in regard to the 
College for use in this country had to be published 
in five different languages. This catalogue shows 
that at that time there were five professors (not in- 
cluding Professor van Millingen), three American 
tutors, one French, one German, one Italian, one 
Greek, one Turkish and one Armenian instructors, 
besides a teacher of music and the president's 
secretary. It gives a detailed account of the 76 
graduates of the College, and shows that up to that 
time there had been 912 different students in the 
College. It gives the names, nationality and resi- 
dence of 11 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 19 Sophomores, 14 
Freshmen, 22 Sub-Freshmen and 76 preparatory 
students, 151 in all registered during the year, to- 
gether with all necessary information in regard to 
the course of study, the terms of admission, and, in 
general, of the objects of the College. It is a pam- 
phlet of twenty-eight pages, printed in Constanti- 

142 



MR. ROBERT'S DEATH 



nople by an Armenian who learned his trade in 
Andover, Mass. 

Looking over the list of instructors reminds me of 
my experience with the German instructor. He 
was a brilliant and accomplished young man of one 
of the best families in the kingdom of Hanover, 
and the leading German pastor in New York city 
gave him the highest recommendations; but he 
turned out to be a thoroughgoing vagabond, who 
had run away from Hanover to escape from military 
service. When we found him out we had to expel 
him from the College, and for many years he used 
to send me, every few months, from different parts 
of the world, abusive postal cards, informing me of 
his intention to come to Constantinople to kill me or 
to horsewhip me in the streets, or some other threat. 
It is some years now since I have heard of him, and I 
have no doubt that he is dead. The story of my 
experience with him from first to last would furnish 
material for the stage of a Bowery theatre. 

The American tutors this year were Mr. Nash, of 
whom I have already spoken, Mr. Porter, who was 
here only one year, and Edward M. Vittum, who is 
now (1907) president of a College in North Dakota. 

I returned from America in September, 1878, in 
better health, traveling by way of England, where 
Mrs. Washburn and I stopped to visit Mr. William 
E. Forster, the famous English statesman, at his 
home in the English Lake Country. Mrs. Forster 
was the daughter of Dr. Arnold of Rugby, and we 
saw much of Matthew Arnold, who was visiting 
his mother at this time. Mr. Forster had been for 
several years one of our most trusted and most 

143 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

influential friends in England and was so as long as 
he lived. He was one of England's ablest statesmen. 
The misfortune of his life was his appointment as 
Irish Secretary. I visited him in London soon after 
his appointment, and I know that he accepted the 
office out of pure benevolence, with the one thought 
of conciliation and with full faith that the Irish 
people would trust his justice and goodwill. In the 
time of the great famine he had gone with his father 
to the rescue of the sufferers in Ireland and had 
never lost the sympathy for them which had its 
origin in that visit. He was of an old Quaker family 
and a man of very tender heart. I was walking 
with him one day over the hills near his house when 
we started several hares. I asked him if he ever 
indulged in shooting. He answered, " I never shed 
the blood of any fellow creature." It was in this 
spirit that he went to Ireland and there escaped 
assassination only by an accident. I asked him once 
what he thought of Matthew Arnold as a philoso- 
pher. He said, "I have often told Matthew that 
he ought to make up his own mind before un- 
dertaking to instruct the world." We found Mat- 
thew Arnold a most interesting conversationalist, 
and, as we went to church together one Sunday, I 
found him apparently one of the most devout wor- 
shipers in the congregation. 

The next time that I visited Mr. Forster was in 
the summer of 1880, when he had just carried 
through the House of Commons a bill designed to 
conciliate the people of Ireland. I was in London 
when it came before the House of Lords, and the 
Marquis of Bath secured from the Lord Chancellor 

144 



MR. ROBERT'S DEATH 

an invitation for me to a seat on the steps of the 
throne, where I had the Prince of Wales, Mr. 
Forster and other distinguished men for company. 
It was one of those rare occasions when the Lords 
muster in full force to resist a Liberal government. 
They were all there that night, and they rejected 
Mr. Forster's bill by an overwhelming majority. 
This was a foregone conclusion, and the debate was 
not of a high order. Beaconsfield, who led, was 
dull. The only eloquence was on the Liberal side. 
What impressed me most was that the Lords were 
not an intellectual looking set of men. There were 
great men there, but the majority looked as though 
they neither knew nor cared anything about the 
questions — old men with one foot in the grave, 
young fellows who looked excessively bored and 
men with no gleam of intelligence in their faces. 
I lost my faith in the House of Lords that night. 

On our arrival at Constantinople after a year's 
absence we found Dr. Long very anxious as to the 
health of his daughter; and, not long after, Mrs. 
Long and his daughter went to southern France in 
the hope that a change of climate might restore her 
health, but before the end of the year he found it 
necessary to go to Montpellier and bring his family 
back. His daughter died at the College, August 3, 
1879, after which the family went to live at the 
house belonging to the College in Hissar. In the 
intimate relations in which we lived, the whole 
College in Hamlin Hall, we all shared in the trial 
through which Dr. Long and his family were 
passing. 

While I was in America my attention was called 

145 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

to the fact that a young Armenian, who had come to 
America and graduated at Bowdoin College, was 
raising money to found a university at Constanti- 
nople, under the patronage, as he claimed, of the 
President of the United States and other distin- 
guished officials and philanthropists, in opposition 
to Robert College. I was requested by some persons 
to whom he had applied for money to investigate the 
matter in America and in Constantinople. I was 
told in America that he claimed to be sure of a very 
large sum of money — as much as a million, it was 
said; but Peter Cooper, whom he claimed as one 
of the largest givers, declared that he had never 
promised to give anything. He had secured, how- 
ever, some money and the patronage of a number 
of distinguished men and women, including one or 
two personal acquaintances of mine. One of the 
best-known clergymen in New York roundly abused 
me and called me hard names for the inquiries that 
I made. In Constantinople I could find no one 
who knew anything of this projected university. 
The young man came to Constantinople with some 
money and was said to have bought a house for 
himself in Scutari. That is the last that I have 
heard of him. I have nothing to say of this young 
man's honesty or good intentions. He had been a 
long time absent from Turkey and perhaps did not 
know that his scheme was an absurd and impossible 
one. What interested me in the matter was this: 
Dr. Hamlin, whom everybody had professed to 
honor, had been trying for years to raise money for 
Robert College; and many of the very people, the 
best of people too, who had honored him but given 

146 



MR. ROBERT'S DEATH 

him no money, were ready to take up, champion 
and support a young man, a foreigner, just out of 
college, in founding a university in Constantinople in 
opposition to Robert College, without even taking 
the trouble to inquire whether his scheme was a 
practicable one or not. I record the story here 
because it is one of the mysteries of American 
benevolence, of which this is not the only illustra- 
tion that has come to my notice. 

The political event of the year which most inter- 
ested us at Robert College was the national con- 
vention which met at Tirnova in April, 1879, to 
adopt a constitution and choose a prince of Bul- 
garia, under the supervision of a Russian general. 
All Europe looked on with interest, and all Europe 
was astonished at the result. It was natural enough 
that the favorite cousin of the Czar, Prince Alexander 
of Battenberg, should be chosen prince, with the 
consent of the Powers. It was most unexpected 
that the constitution adopted should be one of the 
most democratic in Europe, and that Russia made 
no objection to it. The assembly itself was unique, 
made up largely of peasants, many of them in their 
sheepskin clothes, and I think that there was no one 
in the assembly who knew anything about parlia- 
mentary law except the old students of Robert 
College, who were in force. There was not a mem- 
ber who had had any personal experience in civil 
government. One of the acts of the assembly was 
to pass a resolution of gratitude to Dr. Long and 
myself for what we had done for the elevation and 
independence of Bulgaria. Similar resolutions of 
thanks to Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Schuyler were 

147 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

adopted. Prince Alexander himself was a young 
man without experience, and for his private secre- 
tary he chose Mr. Stoiloff, a graduate of the class 
of 1871, who became his most intimate friend and 
counsellor. 

The other Bulgarian province of Eastern Rou- 
melia was also organized by a European com- 
mission, and a Bulgarian, who had been in the 
Turkish service, appointed governor. Austria se- 
cured Bosnia and Herzegovina only by conquest 
after a long and fierce conflict with the inhabitants. 
Servia, Roumania and Montenegro became inde- 
pendent states, but other provisions of the Treaty of 
Berlin, as to Greece, Macedonia and Montenegro, 
were not carried out. 

The class which graduated in July, 1879, num- 
bered 11, — 6 Bulgarians and 5 Armenians, 6 of 
whom are still living (1907). Of the Bulgarians 
one became a teacher, two lawyers, of whom one is a 
distinguished judge, one an officer in the Bulgarian 
army, two are dead. Of the Armenians one be- 
came a physician, one a teacher and clergyman, 
the others merchants. 



148 



CHAPTER XII 



AFTER THE WAR. 1879-1880 

In the summer vacation of 1879 Mr. Maynard 
invited Professor Panaretoff, who knew both Turk- 
ish and Russian, and me to go with him on a trip 
around the Black Sea in the United States corvette 
Wyoming, commanded by Captain Watson. It was 
the first time that an American war vessel had been ^ 
seen in the Black Sea, and we visited all the prin- 
cipal Turkish and Russian ports, and were received 
everywhere with the highest honors by the authori- 
ties and with enthusiasm by the people. The Wyo- 
ming itself was a sad specimen of the decay of the 
American navy. Her boilers leaked so that she 
could not make more than six or seven knots an 
hour, and her guns were in such a damaged condi- 
tion that it was not safe to fire them; but her officers 
and men were an honor to the country, and, when 
she was lying in a harbor, she was not a bad looking 
ship. What most interested us in Russia was that it 
was an Empire of Discontent. High or low, official 
or unofficial, it made no difference; every one talked 
of the unsatisfactory condition of the country — 
even General Todleben, the hero of Sevastopol and 
Plevna, who was then the governor-general of 
Odessa. It was a result of the Russo-Turkish War 
— a foretaste of what was to follow the war with 
Japan, and, but for the assassination of the Czar, it 

149 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

might have led to such changes as would have saved 
Russia from the calamities of the last few years. It 
is well known that at the time of his death he was on 
the point of giving a constitution to his people. 

We returned to Constantinople in season for the 
opening of the College. The number of students 
was 130 boarders and 48 day scholars. At the close 
of the year it was 137 boarders and 56 day scholars. 
The whole number registered during the year was 
209, — Bulgarians 77, Armenians 74, Greeks 27, 
other nationalities 31, a decided advance over the 
previous year. Professor Grosvenor was absent 
during the year on account of the health of his fam- 
ily. Professor van Millingen joined us, and Miss 
Susan Farley, a niece of Dr. Hamlin, came out as 
matron. During the year we lost Mr. Maynard, 
who was recalled to be Postmaster- General. To 
him and to his family the College owes a debt of 
gratitude which no one connected with us at the 
time can ever forget, and the United States has 
never been more worthily represented in Constan- 
tinople than by them. He was followed by General 
Longstreet, who found himself out of his sphere and 
remained here less than a year. 

The inner life of the College during this year was 
uneventful, but the work done was most satisfac- 
tory. Everything was harmonious, and the students 
not only did good work in their classes, but encour- 
aged us to feel that we were really moulding their 
characters and fitting them for a higher life. We 
have always felt that the religious side of our work 
was the most important part of it — the only reason 
for our being here at all ; but it is very difficult to 

150 



AFTER THE WAR 

tabulate or even to describe the nature or the 
results of it. The Sunday services and the daily 
religious exercises which all the students are re- 
quired to attend are very important, but I have al- 
ways felt that our direct personal influence and the 
incidental religious teaching in the classroom were 
more important. I have just read a letter from one 
of the most distinguished of our earlier graduates 
which was written in 1880, in which he says, "My 
interior and religious convictions show me only one 
principle of life and that is duty towards God and 
duty towards my fellow men," and he thinks that 
the government of Bulgaria should send young men 
to Robert College as the one place where this lesson 
can be learned. We have been disappointed in 
some of our students, but it is a fact that many of 
them have illustrated this principle in their lives, 
and it is also true that the high reputation of the Col- 
lege all over this part of the world is due to the per- 
sonal character of our graduates. A tree is known 
by its fruit and a college by its graduates. 

While it was always our purpose to keep politics 
out of the College, we could not but feel an intense 
interest in the course of events about us, and this 
year* everything seemed to be going wrong. What- 
ever personal influence I had I used in the various 
complications which arose, without in any way com- 
promising the College, in the interest of peace and 
progress. To begin with Bulgaria, Mr. Stoiloff was 
the private secretary of Prince Alexander and Mr. 
Dimitroff was chief of the Chancellery of Aleko 
Pasha, the Governor- General of Eastern Roumelia, 
so that I was in intimate relations with both; and 

151 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

in the spring of 1880 I visited Eastern Roumelia. 
Prince Alexander had loyally undertaken to organ- 
ize the government of the Principality of Bulgaria 
under its democratic constitution, but the result was 
discouraging and threatened anarchy and a new Rus- 
sian intervention. There were parties in Bulgaria 
calling themselves conservative and liberal, but there 
were no leaders who had any experience in govern- 
ment, and the National Assembly chosen by the 
people was hopelessly ignorant and unmanageable. 
I suppose that nothing better could reasonably have 
been expected of a people suddenly emancipated 
from Turkish rule, but it was a great disappoint- 
ment to us as well as to Prince Alexander. 

In Eastern Roumelia Robert College men were 
more numerous and the administration better or- 
ganized, but the people resented their separation 
from Bulgaria and the constant intervention of the 
Turks in their affairs, and were encouraged by 
Russia to hope for union with the Principality. 
They were more interested in revolutionary plots 
than in the existing government. This was an in- 
evitable result of the treaty of Berlin, but unfor- 
tunate for the people of Eastern Roumelia. While 
I sympathized heartily with their desire for union, it 
did not seem to me that it could best be brought 
about by these revolutionary methods. It was sure 
to come in time in a peaceful way. 

In Asiatic Turkey the situation was more discour- 
aging than in Bulgaria. We naturally felt a deep 
interest in the Armenians, and England, by her ac- 
tion at Berlin in regard to the treaty of San Stef ano, 
and by the Cyprus treaty, had made herself respon- 

152 



AFTER THE WAR 

sible for such reforms in Turkey as would secure 
their well-being. The Patriarch Nerses, a noble 
Christian man, was a friend of mine and was the 
embodiment of the hopes of his people, but in no 
sense a revolutionist. He had great faith in Eng- 
land, and when he lost it he died of a broken heart. 

To a certain extent the government of Lord 
Beaconsfield had realized its responsibility, and Sir 
Henry Layard had pressed the matter here, with 
the result that there was much talk about reforms 
and an trade issued which professed to ordain "such 
reforms as would secure equal rights to all his Maj- 
esty's beloved subjects." As it was only a reform 
on paper it did not matter much that it was far less 
liberal than some previous ones. The condition of 
the Armenians in the provinces meanwhile was 
growing steadily worse, especially where the Kurds 
were given a free hand to plunder them. Sir Henry 
Layard gave up all hope of accomplishing anything, 
and when Mr. Gladstone came into power he was 
replaced by Mr. Goschen, who came out on a special 
mission to bring the Sultan to terms, and failed. We 
not only regretted this failure from our sympathy 
with the Armenians, but because it seemed to us 
that the Sultan had made a mistake which might 
lead to serious consequences. It is clear now that 
he had a better knowledge of the possibilities before 
him than we had, and he has maintained the same 
policy successfully to this day (1907) — of resisting 
foreign intervention and restricting the influence of 
his non-Mohammedan subjects. 

The situation in Constantinople was not much 
better than in the interior. The Sultan had already 

153 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

concentrated the administration of the government 
in the palace and begun to gather around him the 
sort of adventurers who have since been the great 
curse of the empire. For a time a Tunisian states- 
man, Khairadin Pasha, had been Grand Vizier and 
had excited the hopes of the people, but he was 
summarily dismissed. The spirit of the palace was 
illustrated by the assassination of the military at- 
tache of the Russian Embassy, as he was riding 
along the public street, by one of the Sultan's ser- 
vants. This man intended to murder the charge 
d'affaires, but mistook the military man for him. 
All the influence of all the embassies was not suffi- 
cient to secure the punishment of the assassin. 

The insecurity of the city was brought home to us 
by the murder of Haritoon, the Armenian steward 
of the College, who had been for many years Dr. 
Hamlin's right-hand man and most trusted assist- 
ant in everything mechanical, as well as in the man- 
agement of the boarding department. He was mur- 
dered by two hired assassins at midday within a 
stone's throw of the College, and these assassins 
were employed by an officer of the palace, who had 
attempted to abduct the two attractive daughters of 
Haritoon, but had failed, as their father had suc- 
ceeded in getting them out of the country. Nothing 
could be done to secure the punishment of the offi- 
cer or of the murderers, although the whole story 
was known by everybody in the vicinity, and told 
pretty fully in the Turkish newspapers. 

Some two years later an attempt was made to 
murder me at exactly the same place, but I think 
that, in this case, the object was robbery. The man 

154 



AFTER THE WAR 

had crept up behind me and was just in the act of 
throwing a girdle around my neck to strangle me 
when some unconscious mental activity led me to 
suddenly turn round face to face with the assassin; 
and this unexpected movement so startled him that 
he jumped back, and finally fled, believing no doubt 
that I was armed. 

One of the curious incidents of this year in which 
we were interested was the effort made by Mr. 
Spanoudis, a Greek gentleman, to rescue the Bul- 
garian women and children who had been captured 
during the war and were held as slaves in Constan- 
tinople and the vicinity, by the Turks. He under- 
took the task as a Christian duty and had many 
extraordinary adventures. He came to us that we 
might secure for him the support of the British Em- 
bassy, which we did. He was the means of rescu- 
ing a large number, who were sent back to their 
homes. Of this there is no doubt, although I must 
confess that some of the adventures which he re- 
lated sounded very much like fairy tales and cer- 
tainly could not have been true, even in Constanti- 
nople, in ordinary times; but it was a period of 
uncertainty, before the Sultan had established his 
authority. Other extraordinary things were taking 
place, and the Turks knew that, in the eyes of the 
world, they had no right to hold these Bulgarians as 
slaves. Mr. Spanoudis had the moral support of 
the Russian and British embassies. No one dared 
to challenge or resist the authority which he as- 
sumed. An English society, The Aborigines Pro- 
tection Society, also interested itself in this matter, 
but there is no doubt that a very large number of 

155 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 



Christian women and children were held in slavery 
in other places where they could not be reached. 

The question came up during the year of the pos- 
sibility of Dr. Hamlin's return to the College, and 
the Faculty unanimously voted to request the trus- 
tees to propose this to him; but, after due consid- 
eration, the trustees decided that under the circum- 
stances this was not practicable. About the same 
time they began to insist upon the necessity of my 
going to America to raise money for the endowment 
of the College, as nothing could be expected from 
Mr. Robert's estate for some years, even if the deci- 
sion of the highest courts should finally be in our 
favor, and our means of support would soon be ex- 
hausted. Before the end of the year it was decided 
that I must come during the summer and undertake 
this work. It appeared to me almost a hopeless task ; 
but, as it seemed to be a matter of life or death for 
the College, and there was no one else to go, I con- 
sented, left Constantinople in July and was absent 
two years, Dr. Long acting as president in my ab- 
sence. 

At the close of the year Professor Panaretoff was 
sent to London by Prince Alexander on a special 
mission to the British government. As there was no 
conflict with the Turkish government involved we 
made no objections. 

The Commencement exercises passed off as sue- 
cessfully as could be expected in the old study hall, 
which was the only room that we had for religious 
services or public occasions. It was a wonder that 
guests came to be packed in among the desks and 
benches in discomfort for two hours; but we did 

156 



AFTER THE WAR 

our best to hide our nakedness with flags, flowers 
and green leaves, making it appear a special favor 
to allow them to come by admitting only those who 
had cards of invitation. The crowd came as usual, 
the distinguished and official guests occupying the 
platform, and I suppose what really brought them 
was the prevalent idea that Robert College was a 
centre of influence unsurpassed by any other in Con- 
stantinople, in spite of its meagre appointments. In 
fact, we had no official position, no army behind us, 
no selfish ambitions to gratify, nothing but goodwill 
to all and the desire to lend a helping hand wherever 
we could. 

There were 7 graduates that year, all of whom are 
still living (1907), 4 Bulgarians and 3 Armenians. 
All the Bulgarians have occupied important offi- 
cial positions and two of them have been distin- 
guished as teachers. One of the Armenians is the 
first secretary of the Persian Legation in Washing- 
ton and two are honored merchants in London and 
New York. 



157 



CHAPTER XIII 



TWO YEARS IN AMERICA. 1880-1882 

I left Constantinople in July, 1880, to raise 
money for the College in America and did not return 
until August, 1882. During my absence Dr. Long 
was acting president of the College, so that I was 
never disturbed by any anxiety as to what might 
happen here. Dr. Long was by choice a scholar 
and teacher and shrank from the responsibilities 
of administration; but when called to this work 
he never spared himself, and he made an admirable 
president. He understood the students, he loved 
them, and his personal influence over them was one 
of the best things in the College to the day of his 
death. The eighteenth year the Faculty consisted of 
Professors Grosvenor, van Millingen, Hagopos, Pa- 
naretoff and Vittum, with Messrs. Orville Reed and 
Charles Hoyt as American tutors, and seven other 
instructors. The nineteenth year Mr. Vittum had 
returned to America and Messrs. Beck with and 
Haynes had come to the College as additional 
tutors. 

In 1881 Professor van Millingen built a house for 
himself on the college grounds, for his own use 
while he lives and then to be the property of the 
College. 

The number of students registered the eighteenth 
year was 232, of whom 74 were day scholars. There 

158 




ALBERT L LONG 



TWO YEARS IN AMERICA 

were 89 Bulgarians, 85 Armenians, 28 Greeks, 7 
Turks and 23 others. The nineteenth year the 
number registered was 259, of whom 86 were day 
scholars. There were 105 Bulgarians, 94 Arme- 
nians, 24 Greeks, 12 Turks, and 25 others. The 
building was overcrowded and the staff of teachers 
too few for the work, and Dr. Long wrote to me in 
October, 1881, 44 We must have a new building or 
decline." Nothing saved us at that time from a 
serious loss in the number of our students but 
the fact that Bulgaria had not yet organized her 
school system and that there was no other institu- 
tion in Constantinople which attracted either 
Bulgarians or Armenians, and they believed in 
Robert College. The Greeks were not unfriendly 
to us, but they did what they could to keep their 
students in Greek schools, and we were too poor to 
organize a Greek department which would attract 
them. 

In December, 1881, we were distressed by the fail- 
ure of our bankers, Messrs. Charles S. Hanson & 
Co., not so much by the loss of money, as we had 
only about twelve hundred dollars on deposit at the 
time, as by the misfortune which had befallen a 
family which had been for almost fifty years the 
leading English family in Constantinople and had 
been the most trusted and devoted friends of the 
College in the city. Mr. C. S. Hanson had died 
not long before. He and Mrs. Hanson were the 
best specimens I have ever known of the ideal 
English gentleman and lady of the first half of the 
nineteenth century. Lord Lyons, when he was 
ambassador here, said the same thing to me about 

159 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

them. Their sons, with their families, were equally 
warm friends of the College, and their failure was a 
decided loss for us, as well as to the English- 
speaking colony generally. 

The political situation in Turkey and Bulgaria 
during these two years was even more discouraging 
than in the previous year, and a cause of anxiety 
to Dr. Long, although the consequences of it were 
not apparent at that time in the College, which was 
more prosperous than ever before. The Sultan had 
fairly inaugurated the policy which has character- 
ized his reign, of resisting to the utmost all foreign 
influences in the Empire and reducing the number 
and influence of his Christian subjects, while at the 
same time building up and strengthening the Mo- 
hammedan population and reviving the old spirit 
of Islam. I do not know that we have any right to 
blame the Caliph of the Mohammedan world for 
adopting this policy, if he believed that, as Sultan 
of Turkey, he could put it in execution without 
endangering the existence of the empire or violating 
treaty obligations. At the time of which I am writ- 
ing he was interested in encouraging a panislamic 
movement in Syria, Egypt and northern Africa, 
which finally led to the English occupation of Egypt. 
He had commenced his work of putting down the 
Armenians, of limiting the rights of foreign and 
native Christian schools and of the Christian reli- 
gious organizations generally. He was successfully 
resisting the decisions of the Congress of Berlin, in 
favor of Greece, Montenegro and Macedonia, and 
had refused to recognize the right of England, under 
the Cyprus treaty, to interfere in the government 

160 



TWO YEARS IN AMERICA 

of his Asiatic provinces. He had made it clear that 
no Mohammedan would be allowed to change his 
religion and that no criticism of Islam would be 
tolerated. The general censorship of the press had 
commenced. Although none of these things directly 
affected us, except the school regulations, which 
were never enforced against Robert College, the 
general outlook was discouraging, not only here, 
but for me in America, where there was a natural 
hesitation about investing money in Turkey. 

We were also very anxious about the state of 
things in Bulgaria, where, in May, 1881, Prince 
Alexander, with the approval of the Czar, sus- 
pended the Constitution for seven years, and brought 
in Russian officials to govern the country. He was 
supported in this by the so-called conservative party, 
which was in the minority in the country. It 
looked as though Bulgaria had been freed from 
Turkey only to fall under the equally bad rule of 
Russia, especially after the assassination of the 
Czar and the accession of Alexander III, who had 
hated Prince Alexander of Bulgaria ever since they 
were boys together. The Russian officials now 
took their orders from St. Petersburg and treated 
the prince with contempt. They undertook the 
Russification of everything, and if they had been 
men of a different stamp they might have won the 
people over to their side; but they treated the 
Bulgarians as a conquered people, like the tribes 
of Central Asia, alienated their sympathies and 
really prepared the way for Prince Alexander's 
coup d'etat of 1883, when he restored the Constitu- 
tion and cleared them out. But in 1882 there was 

161 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

no such change in view, and we felt as though we 
were to be disappointed of all our hopes for this peo- 
ple of whom we had expected so much. There was 
little that we could do for them beyond the influence 
that we had over our present and former students 
and over the policy of the British government 
through our friends in the ministry and at the 
Embassy here. Things were somewhat better in 
Eastern Roumelia, but here two Russian consuls 
were doing what they could to create trouble and 
foment discontent. There was nothing promising 
improvement in the condition of Macedonia or of 
the Armenians in the Asiatic provinces, but rather 
a foretaste of what was to come in later years. 

The conflict of interests among the European 
Powers made it impossible for them to intervene, 
and gave the Sultan a free hand to carry out his own 
plans. England was the only Power that had the 
interests of the people of the East at heart. At 
this time, under Mr. Gladstone, she did what she 
could, but she was in danger of war with Russia. 
France was unfriendly and Germany doing what 
she could to create difficulties. She already had 
her eyes on Asia Minor as her share of the Ottoman 
Empire when the empire went to pieces, and had 
begun her exploitation of it under the pretense of 
friendship for the Sultan. I happen to know that 
the English Liberal ministry did not look upon 
such a scheme with disfavor. Russia was the 
power which they feared, and Asia Minor in the 
hands of Germany would be a barrier to her ad- 
vance and also make it necessary for Germany, 
with her small navy, to keep on good terms with 

162 



TWO YEARS IN AMERICA 

England. England at that time did not want any 
more territory on the Mediterranean. Bismarck, 
after the Franco-Prussian War, had urged upon her 
the occupation of Egypt, but no statesman whom 
I knew of either party was in favor of it. 

I find nothing in the records of the Faculty 
during the two years of my absence of general 
interest, beyond the evidence which they give of the 
hard work that was done by all the teachers and the 
constant effort to advance, to do better work in every 
department and to bring the students up to a higher 
standard of life. I have no account of the Com- 
mencement exercises in 1882, but a letter from Dr. 
Long gives a detailed account of those of 1881. 
On July 13 there were prize declamations in the 
afternoon and a prize debate in the evening 
between the Sophomore and Freshman classes on 
the question whether a state owes more to her 
literary men than to her inventors. There were 
good audiences, and the students acquitted them- 
selves with honor. But the great day was July 14, 
which brought out the usual crowd of many 
nationalities, and the orations of the graduating 
class were in English, French, Armenian and 
Bulgarian. The subjects are worth recording, 
when it is remembered that these orations were 
delivered in Constantinople by Armenians, Greeks 
and Bulgarians, — True Education, Christianity 
and Patriotism, The Dark Ages, The Influence of 
the Fine Arts, Man and Nature, Free Thought, 
Representative Government, Violation of Popular 
Rights, The Destiny of States and Nations, The 
New Sovereign (i. e. the People), Fall of the City of 

163 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

Constantine, and Political Parties. There was 
certainly no other place in Constantinople where 
such subjects could have been publicly discussed, 
although there was nothing seditious in any one of 
them. They were new subjects of thought for the 
young men of the East and for a Constantinople 
audience. 

Among the distinguished guests present were the 
Persian Ambassador, Lord Dufferin the English 
Ambassador, and the Marquis of Bath. The two 
latter made very interesting addresses, after the 
orations, and were warm friends of the College all 
their lives. 

In 1881 there were 12 graduates, of whom 8 are 
still living; 9 were Bulgarians, 2 Armenians and 
1 Greek. Six of the Bulgarians were teachers for 
a time and one an editor. One has been for many 
years in the diplomatic service. Four have occupied 
important official positions. Two are merchants. 
One of the Armenians is a distinguished teacher, the 
other studied medicine. The Greek is in business. 

In 1882 there were 9 graduates, of whom 8 are 
living (1907); 5 were Bulgarians, 4 Armenians. 
Two of the Bulgarians were teachers and one an 
editor. Two are now judges and one has been Min- 
ister of Public Instruction. One is a merchant. 
One of the Armenians is an official of the Turkish 
government. The others are in business. 

My work in America during these two years was 
one for which I am sure that I was never fitted. I 
never had any difficulty in interesting people in 
Robert College, and they were often enthusiastic in 
their sympathy. I can never forget all the kindness 

164 



TWO YEARS IN AMERICA 

and goodwill which I met with — the delightful 
homes that were opened to me and the friends that 
I made; but I lacked altogether that sort of per- 
suasive power which I have seen in many other 
beggars, and could never argue the question with 
one who declined to give. I had many bitter dis- 
appointments, but when the two years were over I 
had the satisfaction of knowing that whatever 
money I had collected had been given heartily, not 
under pressure of any kind, but only because God 
had put it into the hearts of the donors to lend a 
hand in what they saw to be a good work. In many 
cases it was without my ever directly asking for it. 
Nearly all of these benefactors of the College have 
passed away to a higher life, but their memory is 
very precious. The following is a list of the prin- 
cipal donors. In Boston, William Endicott, Jr., 
Mrs. V. G. Stone, William S. Houghton, H. P. Kid- 
der, S. D. Warren, W. O. Grover, Ezra Farns worth, 
Henry Woods, Miss E. F. Mason, J. N. Dennison, 
R. C. Greenleaf, Frederick Ayer, J. L. Brewer, Eli- 
sta Mulford, Phillips Brooks, B. H. Nash, William 
Claflin, Mrs. Hemenway, T. G. Appleton, E. P. 
Beebe. In New York : William E. Dodge, William 
E. Dodge, Jr., M. K. Jesup, D. Willis James, A. J. 
Barnes, John Taylor Johnson. In other places, 
C. P. Whitin and Mrs. John Whitin of Whitinsville, 
P. L. Moen and Stephen Salisbury of Worcester, 
George H. Corliss of Providence, Mrs. M. B. Young 
of Fall River, S. M. Edgell of St. Louis. The whole 
sum contributed was sixty-one thousand eight hun- 
dred and fifty-four dollars. 

There were many others who were like the Apos- 

165 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

ties Peter and John. Silver and gold they had none, 
but such as they had they freely gave, — their sym- 
pathy, their counsel, their influence, — Edward Ev- 
erett Hale, President Eliot, Rev. Dr. N. G. Clark, 
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, the ministers and editors 
generally in Boston. Other college presidents and 
ministers in New England and New York were 
equally in sympathy with the College ; but most of 
my time, when I was well enough to do any work, 
was spent in Boston and vicinity, where I was at 
home. I was a stranger then in other parts of the 
country except in New York City. I visited other 
cities and met with a hearty reception in many 
homes, but got no money. The first gift that I re- 
ceived came unsolicited from a very poor man, a 
good minister. It was two silver half dollars. I re- 
placed them and keep them still as a memento and 
shall have them framed and put in the College 
Museum. 

I have just gone through the long list of the names 
of those upon whom I called, from most of whom I 
got nothing, and I do not recall anything unpleasant 
in connection with any one of them. Only one man 
ever treated me uncivilly and ordered me out of his 
office, and he repented and did works meet for re- 
pentance — gave me the largest gift that I received. 
I do not regret the experience of these two years or 
of those which I have had since in this work. They 
have brought me friends whom I should not have 
known otherwise, whose friendship has been one of 
the chief joys of my life, and given me strength and 
courage for my work in Constantinople. I have no 
complaint to make of those who might have given 

166 



TWO YEARS IN AMERICA 

money to the College and did not. I have come to 
feel a deep sympathy for all those who are known to 
be givers, and to marvel at the patience with which 
they listen to endless applications for money for 
every conceivable scheme, good, bad and indiffer- 
ent. They are right in declining to give to anything 
which they do not approve or do not understand, 
and they must choose among the things which they 
recognize as good. No man can give to everything. 
Robert College was far away. It did not appeal 
to any national, denominational or party interest. 
There were but few who had ever visited Con- 
stantinople or realized its importance as a centre 
of influence, and few who could understand the 
power of a Christian college to influence the destiny 
of a nation. Those who gave were those who were 
already interested in foreign missions and who had 
some knowledge of what Robert College was doing. 
Some who began to be interested at that time kept 
up this interest, learned more about it and gave 
liberally in later years. 



167 



CHAPTER XIV 



THE COLLEGE AT THE END OP TWENTY YEARS. 
188£-1884 

On my return from America in the summer of 
1882, I spent some days in London and visited my 
old friends Mr. William E. Forster and Mr. Bryce 1 — 
as well as other influential men. Lord Granville was 
the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and he invited me 
to call on him at the Foreign Office, as he wished to 
talk with me about affairs in the East. I found him 
one of the most agreeable of men and well informed 
in regard to the state of affairs in Turkey. The 
question of Egypt was then approaching the crisis 
which resulted in the bombardment of Alexandria, 
the outbreak of fanaticism which followed and the 
English occupation of the country. He had a keen 
appreciation of the dangers resulting from the state 
of excitement in Egypt and Syria, connected with 
the revolutionary movement of Arabi Pasha, and 
the intrigues of the Sultan, who sought to take ad- 
vantage of this to bring about a panislamic revival. 
He told me that he wished to avoid armed inter- 
vention, especially by England alone, and con- 
sidered it impossible for England to occupy Egypt 
for any length of time. I saw no one in London who 

1 No English statesman has followed events in the nearer East 
so carefully and sympathetically for the last thirty years as Mr. 
Bryce, and no one has been a more devoted friend of Robert College. 

168 



THE COLLEGE AT THE END OF TWENTY YEARS 

did not share his opinions. If Arabi Pasha had 
yielded to the demands of the British admiral at 
Alexandria, which were very reasonable, I do not 
believe that England wotild have occupied Egypt. 
On the other hand, it was the general opinion of 
foreigners living in Egypt and Syria that if this 
movement were not checked in some way it would 
result in a general rising of the Mohammedans in 
Syria, Arabia and northern Africa against Chris- 
tian and European influence. It was this and the 
importance of the Suez Canal which led the govern- 
ment of Mr. Gladstone to run the risk of presenting 
an ultimatum at Alexandria, and the obstinacy of 
Arabi Pasha which determined the measures which 
followed. 

After I reached Constantinople General Lew 
Wallace, who was the American minister here, 
told me that at the request of the Sultan he 
had telegraphed to Washington a request for our 
government to intervene and mediate between 
England and Turkey, to which our government had 
replied that, if England also wished it, we might 
do so, and he thought that it was the knowledge of 
this which decided England to act at Alexandria to 
forestall any such proposition; but he had no evi- 
dence of this beyond the coincidence of time. 

General Wallace was a special favorite of the 
Sultan, more so than any other minister or am- 
bassador here, and after his return to America 
he was his eulogist. He was always ready to take 
up his defense and say a good word for him, 
but I do not know that he ever told in public the 
story of one tragic incident connected with this 

169 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

same Egyptian question. There was a time when 
it was a question of the joint occupation of Egypt by 
England and Turkey, and Lord Dufferin was doing 
his best to persuade the Sultan to agree to this. 
France and Russia, who did not wish to see Eng- 
land's occupation legalized, advised against it and 
represented that the plan proposed would make 
England dominant there, while the Turkish forces 
would be a mere side show. The Sultan sent for 
General Wallace to ask for his advice. General 
Wallace very properly told him that this was an 
affair in which the United States minister could not 
possibly take any part. The Sultan told him that 
he had not sent for the United States minister and 
did not wish the opinion of the United States 
government, but that he had sent for his personal 
friend General Wallace and wished his personal 
opinion. After vainly endeavoring to evade the 
question, General Wallace said, "If you really 
wish to know what I would do if I were in your place 
I will tell you." The Sultan insisted, and General 
Wallace said: "If I were in your place I would get 
my troops ready, embark them and go with them 
to Egypt. Once there no one can question your 
supremacy and you have the game in your own 
hands." The interpreter had hardly finished the 
translation of this when the Sultan gave a groan and 
fell forward in a fainting fit. He saw the point of 
General Wallace's advice and knew that he did 
not dare to follow it. General Wallace was hurried 
out into an antechamber and left in suspense as to 
his own fate for a couple of hours. Finally a 
chamberlain came with the Sultan's regret that 

170 



THE COLLEGE AT THE END OF TWENTY YEARS 



he had an ill turn and could not continue the 
conversation. The subject was never alluded to 
again. General Wallace told me this story him- 
self. It was generally believed in Europe that 
England did not desire a joint occupation of Egypt 
and that Lord Dufferin was really * ' riding for a 
fall" — to have the credit of wishing a joint occu- 
pation, but pressing it in such a way as to secure 
a refusal, and he got great credit in diplomatic 
circles for his skill in playing this double game. 
Just before he left Constantinople he assured me 
confidentially that this was all a mistake — that 
in fact he had been in dead earnest and that his 
mission here had been a failure. 

We greatly enjoyed General and Mrs. Wallace 
during the four years of his stay here. They were 
warm friends of the College, and a great addition to 
our social life. The most curious incident of his life 
here was the declaration of a Presbyterian minister 
in Missouri that he had been in Constantinople and 
had seen and handled in the library of the Mosque 
of St. Sophia the original manuscript from which 
General Wallace had borrowed his story of "Ben 
Hur." This absurd tale gained such currency in 
America that General Wallace obtained the Sultan's 
permission for Dr. Riggs and me to investigate the 
matter in the library itself. I happened to be ill, and 
Dr. Long went in my place. It proved that, except 
two European princes, no foreigner had visited this 
library for many years, and it goes without saying 
that no manuscript having any relation to "Ben 
Hur" existed there. The most remarkable thing 
about this masterpiece is that when General Wallace 

171 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

wrote it he had never been out of America, and yet 
the book breathes the spirit of the East and of the 
age which it represents. 

We had another interesting experience which 
grew out of the discovery of the "Didache" or 
"Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" by the Greek 
Bishop Bryennios in the library of the Jerusalem 
Monastery at Constantinople. It at once excited 
the attention of the Christian world, and Dr. Schaff 
of Union Theological Seminary wrote to me asking 
me to see if I could get a photograph of the manu- 
script. I went to see Bishop Bryennios and met 
with a cordial reception. He promised me all that 
I asked, and I arranged for Dr. Long to go down and 
take the photograph. Dr. Long went, but found the 
monks in charge of the library anything but cordial. 
After much delay they allowed him to take a photo- 
graph of what they declared to be the last page of 
the "Teaching." When he got home and printed 
the photograph he found that, while it was the last 
page of the manuscript, it did not contain a word 
of the "Teaching," which was not the last docu- 
ment in the manuscript. It was valuable as it gave 
the name of the copyist and the place and date of 
the writing (1056), but it was not the "Teaching." 
A few weeks later Bishop Bryennios was exiled to 
Nicomedia by the new Patriarch. 

The College had no direct interest in Egyptian 
affairs, but the air in Constantinople was charged 
with political electricity, and this naturally influ- 
enced our course of thought during the year. It 
was the situation in Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia 
which chiefly interested us. We had a larger num- 

172 



THE COLLEGE AT THE END OF TWENTY YEARS 

ber of Bulgarian students than ever before, but 
until Prince Alexander's coup d'etat in 1883 the condi- 
tion of things there seemed more hopeless than ever, 
and then this revolt of the prince against Russian 
dictation gave new strength to the party in Russia 
which was determined to make his rule impossible. 
The Russian papers attributed this anti-Russian 
feeling in Bulgaria to the influence of Robert Col- 
lege, and one of them declared that I had expended 
half a million dollars of British money to bring 
about this result. It was no doubt true that the 
general influence of Robert College was a factor in 
leading the Bulgarians to resent Russian methods, 
but there were Robert College graduates and stu- 
dents in all the various parties in Bulgaria. I do 
not think that any of them favored the absorption 
of Bulgaria into the Russian Empire, but there 
were those who felt that the independence of all 
Bulgaria could be secured only by the help of Rus- 
sia, and that it was necessary to conciliate the Czar 
at any cost, even by the sacrifice of Prince Alex- 
ander, whom he hated. As to money influence, I 
never had a dollar to spend in Bulgaria or anywhere 
else for political purposes; and I happen to know 
that the British government failed to supply its own 
diplomatic agency at Sofia with money even to ob- 
tain information, which it ought to have had, at a 
critical moment. It was the Russian agents them- 
selves whose high-handed abuse of power changed 
the universal gratitude of the Bulgarians into fear 
and dislike. 

The twentieth and twenty-first years of Robert 
College represent a period when it had reached the 

173 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

greatest development possible with the means at its 
disposition and under the conditions in which it 
existed, and it is in place to give a picture of what 
it was at this time. 

It occupied one building with a temporary annex 
which served as a study hall and room for the Sun- 
day services and all general and public gatherings. 
Hamlin Hall, the main building, was occupied by 
dormitories, the boarding department, a hospital 
room, library, museum, laboratory, recitation 
rooms, tutors' rooms, servants' rooms, offices and 
the apartments of the president's family and the 
matron. Everything about this building, except its 
solid walls, and everything about the annex, their 
furniture and their conveniences, represented en- 
forced economy and primitive conditions. We had no 
water supply except what we caught on the roof and 
stored in a cistern, and no drainage, except into a 
cesspool. The students slept in dormitories, fifteen 
to twenty in a room, which could not be heated or 
properly ventilated. We had not been able to build 
a wall around our grounds. When Hamlin Hall 
was built it was the finest school building in Turkey, 
and it certainly occupied the finest site in Turkey, 
if not in the world ; but the founding and successful 
development of Robert College had roused the gov- 
ernment and the various nationalities to the neces- 
sity and the power of education. The Sultan had 
determined to do for the Turks what he believed 
that Robert College had done for the Bulgarians; 
and the Bulgarians so fully appreciated the im- 
portance of education that they had already begun 
to establish colleges and schools of all grades in 

174 



THE COLLEGE AT THE END OF TWENTY YEARS 



Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia. The Greeks and 
Armenians in Turkey were also doing what they 
could. Robert College found itself in competition 
with all these rival institutions, and some of them 
were far better equipped than it was. Our defi- 
ciencies became apparent to all, although it cannot 
be said that our general influence had diminished 
or that our reputation had suffered. It would have 
done so very soon if we had not shown evidence of 
progress. 

In the crowded and inadequate quarters which I 
have described we had, the twentieth year, 243 
students on our registers, 165 of whom were board- 
ers: 110 Bulgarians, 83 Armenians, 26 Greeks, 11 
Turks, 13 others. The twenty-first year 215 regis- 
tered, of whom 142 were boarders : 91 Bulgarians, 
82 Armenians, 29 Greeks, 5 Turks, 8 others. 

The rising bell rang at 6.30 o'clock. Breakfast 
for the tutors and students in the basement dining- 
room at 7, and prayers at the commencement of 
study hours at 8.20. All the students were re- 
quired to be present. Then came classes until 
12.30. Lunch, classes again from 2 until 4.30. 
Dinner at 6 and study hours in the evening from 
7.30 until 9. All in bed at 10. Wednesday p.m. 
declamations at 1.30 was the only college exercise. 
Saturday afternoon was free. Sunday at 10.45 re- 
ligious services, preaching by president, Professor 
van Millingen, Dr. Long or Professor Grosvenor. 
Bible classes in the afternoon after a general meet- 
ing at 2.30 under the direction of the president, 
occupying an hour in all. Meeting in the evening 
generally under the direction of tutors. All board- 

175 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

ing students were required to attend all of these. 
During the recreation hours there were games, 
walks, etc., when the weather permitted. The stu- 
dents had an average of twenty-five classes a week 
and each teacher from twenty to twenty-five classes, 
besides his other duties. We had an interesting 
museum, a library of about five thousand volumes 
and a very fair supply of apparatus. We had no 
doctor within six miles of us and no proper hospital. 
Dr. Long, Mrs. Washburn and I had some know- 
ledge of the care of the sick and of what needed to 
be done in case of accidents; and no small amount 
of work of this kind fell upon us, which brought us 
into the most intimate and friendly relations with 
the students. Mrs. Washburn knew the other lan- 
guages and had learned Bulgarian that she might 
get nearer to the boys when they were ill. I am not 
sure that we did any more profitable work than 
this. We had a number of small boys in the Pre- 
paratory Department at that time who lived in 
Hamlin Hall, occupying two dormitories on the 
same story with the president's rooms, who needed 
special care. Miss Farley and Mrs. Washburn gave 
a good deal of attention to them. 

The most important characteristic of the College 
was that the professors and their families and all 
the teachers who lived in Hamlin Hall were inspired 
with the idea that we were making men who in turn 
were to be the leaders of their people to a higher life. 
Giving instruction in various branches of learning 
was not the end for which we were working, but 
only a means to a real end which we had in view. 
To attain this end was the one thought of our lives, 

176 



THE COLLEGE AT THE END OF TWENTY YEARS 

and no one counted it a sacrifice to do anything 
which would help on this work. We did not doubt 
that it was an essential part of it to discipline the 
intellectual powers of our students, to teach them 
to think for themselves, and we never neglected our 
classes. That we were reasonably successful is 
proved by the fact that the universities of Europe 
recognized our diplomas, and that many of our 
graduates distinguished themselves in their profes- 
sional studies. We naturally rejoiced in this, but it 
was not the secret of our success, or of the harmony 
and enthusiasm with which we worked together, 
or of our intimate relations with the students, who 
thoroughly appreciated the fact that there was 
nothing perfunctory about our work, but that we 
were doing our best to make men of them — that 
we were living for them and not for ourselves ; that 
whatever concerned them interested us, to whatever 
race or nationality they might belong. 

The class which graduated in 1883 numbered 10, 
of whom 7 are living — 5 Bulgarians, 4 Armenians 
and 1 Greek. Of the Bulgarians Mr. Yoicoff has 
been ever since one of the most valued instructors 
in Robert College. Stoicoff is the principal naval 
officer in Bulgaria, Dimitroff is a banker, Djam- 
bazoff was a judge and Djabaroff a teacher. Of the 
Armenians Djiladjian is a chemist, Tashdjian was 
a lawyer, the others are merchants. The Greek was 
in business. 

The class of 1884 numbered 22, of whom 19 
are living. 14 were Bulgarians, 7 Armenians, 1 
Greek. Of the Bulgarians, 4 were teachers, 4 
merchants, 2 connected with the Ministry of War, 

177 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

2 physicians, 1 major of cavalry, 1 in the diplomatic 
service. Of the Armenians 3 are merchants, 1 
teacher, 1 dentist in New York, 1 was private sec- 
retary and 1 in publication department of the 
American Mission. The Greek is a steamship 
agent. 

Many of those who were students in the College 
during these two years but did not graduate have 
held honorable positions in various walks of life. 
One of them is now Minister of Finance in Bulgaria. 

One of the most important events of the twenty- 
first year was the coming of Mr. Louisos Eliou, 
Ph. D., a graduate of the University of Athens, to 
take charge of the Greek Department in the College. 
Up to this time we had never been able to do for the 
Greeks what we were doing for the Armenians and 
Bulgarians, as we had never found a satisfactory 
teacher to build it up. In Mr. Eliou we found the 
right man. He was appointed professor later on 
and has been one of our most honored colleagues 
ever since, honored alike by us and by the Greek 
nation. 



178 



CHAPTER XV 



THE GREAT CRISIS IN BULGARIA. 1884-1886 

Professor Panaretoff was absent the twenty- 
second year on account of a very serious illness, 
which attacked him on the train when on his way 
to Vienna with my sister and son. He was in a 
hospital in Vienna for a long time and later at 
Meran, but at the end of the year returned in good 
health. Dr. Long was absent the twenty-third 
year, having been requested by the trustees to 
go to America to raise money for the College. He 
was a distinguished and highly honored minister 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which had a 
mission in Bulgaria, of which he had been the 
director before coming to the College. The trus- 
tees thought that he would be able to interest the 
Methodists as well as others in the College. He 
was in every way a most attractive man, and we also 
had faith in his success. It was a critical time for 
the College, when we must show some signs of 
progress or lose our influence. The number of our 
Bulgarian students had already fallen from 110 to 
71, owing to the opening of similar institutions 
there. The whole number registered of all nation- 
alities had fallen from 259 in 1881-1882 to 173 in 
1884-1885. Unhappily we were all disappointed. 
He was well received everywhere and got plenty 
of sympathy, but no money. I believe that no 

179 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

Methodist has ever given any money to Robert Col- 
lege, although the bishops of the church have been 
our good friends, and some of our graduates are 
Methodist ministers. 

Miss Farley, the matron, was absent for two years 
in America on account of ill health. 

Professor Ormiston came to the College in the 
summer of 1885 to take Dr. Long's place for one 
year, but remained as instructor and later as Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry, Geology and Mineralogy. 

The number of students registered the twenty- 
second year was 173, of whom 115 were boarders. 
Seventy-one were Bulgarians, 63 Armenians, 28 
Greeks, 2 Turks, others 9. 

The twenty-third year the number registered was 
182, of whom 120 were boarders. Seventy-one 
were Bulgarians, 64 Armenians, 37 Greeks, no 
Turks, 10 others. 

The absence of Turkish students then and in 
the following years was due to the effort of the 
Sultan to prevent Turkish boys attending foreign 
schools rather than those which he had himself 
provided for their benefit, not to any special hostil- 
ity to Robert College, although everything English, 
even the English language, was regarded with dis- 
favor at this time on account of the occupation of 
Egypt by England. 

In the summer of 1885 Mrs. Washburn and I 
spent two months in Eastern Roumelia and Bul- 
garia. We had received many pressing invitations 
to make this visit from our graduates who occupied 
important official positions in both these states, and 
the time seemed to us favorable, as there was no 

180 



THE GREAT CRISIS IN BULGARIA 

political controversy at that time between them and 
the Turkish government. We had long desired to 
visit our old students in their own homes and to see 
with our own eyes what they were doing for their 
country, and what progress had been made in the 
country itself. 

We went by train to Philippopolis, which then 
took two days, as the trains did not run in the night 
or at any great speed in the day time. To our 
great surprise we were met at the station by the 
prefect of the province, the mayor of the city, the 
Bishop and a large number of other notables and 
escorted to the home of the prefect, our graduate 
Mr. Dimitroff, where we were entertained; and 
later on we found that we were the guests of the 
state as well as of the people and were received and 
entertained with great honor everywhere. It be- 
came a sort of triumphal journey through the 
country, in honor of Robert College. The details 
of that trip are not in place here. Mr. Shipkoff was 
with us for a part of the journey and Professor 
Panaretoff for the rest. From Philippopolis we 
made an excursion into the Rhodope Mountains 
with Mr. Dimitroff, and Mr. Stoiloff entertained us 
at Sofia. We traveled in a phaeton drawn by 
three horses abreast, and accompanied by an 
honorary guard. In some places we had to travel 
on horseback. We visited the most beautiful parts 
of the Rhodope and Balkan Mountains, crossed the 
Shipka pass to Tirnova, the ancient capital, spent 
some time in Sofia, the present capital, and some 
days in the famous Rilo Monastery in the moun- 
tains on the frontier of Macedonia, finally returning 

181 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

to Philippopolis. Aside from our relations with the 
people it was an ideal excursion, unsurpassed by 
any other in our experience; but after all, the chief 
interest of it was in the reception given us by our 
former students and the people generally, in their 
grateful recognition of what Robert College had 
done for them, and in our satisfaction at the in- 
fluence of our students in the country. I also gained 
a knowledge of the real situation of affairs in both 
provinces, of the difficulties and dangers in view, 
and of the spirit of the people, which enabled me, in 
the trying times which soon followed, to be of 
greater service to them than I had ever been before. 

It was made plain to me that, sooner or later, an 
attempt would be made to unite Eastern Roumelia 
and Bulgaria; but I was no less astonished than the 
rest of the world when the revolution broke out at 
Philippopolis, September 18, less than two weeks 
after our return to Constantinople. Meanwhile I 
had given Mr. Pears, 1 the distinguished correspon- 
dent of the London Daily News, a long interview on 
the situation there; and his letter, embodying this, 
with my name, was published in London on the 
day when the telegraph announced the outbreak of 
the revolution. As it was the only news on the 

1 Edwin Pears, Esq., was not only the correspondent of the 
London Daily News, but was and still is the leading English lawyer 
in Turkey. He is also the author of two of the most valuable his- 
torical works on Constantinople — The Fall of Constantinople and 
The Destruction of the Greek Empire. Through a long period of 
years he has been one of my most intimate personal friends and a 
devoted friend of the College, to whom we owe a great debt of 
gratitude. 

182 



THE GREAT CRISIS IN BULGARIA 

subject it was reproduced all over Europe, and it 
was generally believed that I had had some part in 
the plot. This was absolutely untrue. I know of 
only one Robert College student who was a leader 
in it, and, as it was absolutely necessary for it to be 
kept a secret from the prefect, with whom I was 
staying, this student told me nothing about it. It 
was only the general unrest which came to my 
knowledge, with the fact that Russia was interested 
in some such plan in the hope that it would lead to 
the overthrow of Prince Alexander, which was the 
chief end of Russian policy at that time. Prince 
Alexander himself had some knowledge of the plot, 
but before it came to a head he did what he could to 
prevent the outbreak; while the Russian consul at 
Philippopolis attended the meetings of the conspira- 
tors, and encouraged them, believing that Prince 
Alexander, who was then in Varna, was not in a 
position to profit by it. It was a bloodless revolu- 
tion; the elaborate but artificial government of 
Eastern Roumelia went to pieces and disappeared 
without a struggle, and the people cried out for 
Prince Alexander. He came, knowing very well 
that he did so at risk of his throne and probably of 
his life. There is nothing more pathetic in the 
history of Europe and nothing more diabolical in 
the history of Russia than the story of the events 
in Bulgaria which followed this Philippopolis re- 
volution. The prince was sacrificed by Europe to 
the personal hatred of the Czar, and Bulgaria be- 
came a united state, in spite of Russia. The Turks 
had very little interest in the matter so long as their 
people in Eastern Roumelia were unmolested and 

183 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

Macedonia was not invaded; but Russia insisted 
on an immediate invasion of the country by the 
Turks and carried most of the Powers with her. 
Happily England was then represented here by my 
old friend Sir William White, who was not afraid to 
defy the world in a good cause, and who had the 
full confidence of Lord Salisbury. He alone saved 
the day by sheer force of will, and the Turks did not 
move. The Russians also attempted to destroy the 
power of Prince Alexander by suddenly recalling 
all the Russian officers from the Bulgarian army, 
which had up to that time been kept in their hands. 
The Minister of War and all officers above the rank 
of captain were Russians. Then, having failed to 
persuade the Turks to war, they encouraged Servia 
to attack Bulgaria. The result of their success in 
this was the utter defeat of the Servians, making 
Prince Alexander a hero in the eyes of the w T orld, 
and rousing the sympathy of Europe for the Bul- 
garians ; but no one who was not behind the scenes 
can know what a desperate struggle went on from 
day to day, before anything was settled. In 
Constantinople it was a conflict between Sir William 
White and the representatives of all the other 
Great Powers, led by Mr. Nelidoff, the Russian 
ambassador, whose object was to restore the 
status quo ante in Eastern Roumelia and thus 
prevent the union. The conflict here finally re- 
sulted in a compromise by which Prince Alexander 
was appointed Governor-General of Eastern Rou- 
melia, which was a personal union, but which im- 
plied a separate administration under the old 
regime. In Eastern Roumelia it was a conflict 

184 



PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BULGARIA 



THE GREAT CRISIS IN BULGARIA 

between Prince Alexander and his friends under 
the lead of Mr. Dimitroff, prefect of Philippopolis, 
with the agents of Russia and their adherents, in- 
cluding the consuls, except the English; and in this 
Prince Alexander won the day, for the old regime 
was never reestablished and the union was per- 
fected. No little credit is due to the Sultan for this 
result, for, while he kept up the appearance of 
following Russia in the exact execution of the 
treaty of Berlin, he refused to become so far her 
tool as to use force to prevent the union. The 
difficulties were unhappily complicated by the 
action of Greece, which threatened war if Eastern 
Roumelia were united to Bulgaria. As this did not 
suit the plans of Russia she joined the other Powers 
in keeping Greece quiet. 

The troubles of Prince Alexander did not end 
with the defeat of the Servians and his appointment 
as Governor- General of Eastern Roumelia. Russia 
was as determined as ever to destroy him, and spared 
no effort to stir up opposition among the Bulgarians, 
and even organized plots to kill him. The Bulga- 
rians generally were devoted to him ; but there were 
party leaders and army officers, I am sorry to say 
some graduates of Robert College, who allowed 
themselves to become the tools of Russia, some 
from the honest conviction that Bulgaria could not 
afford to antagonize Russia, others from purely 
selfish interests. As I was in correspondence with 
men of all parties, I did what little I could to keep 
the peace between them and strengthen the hands 
of Prince Alexander. 

Meanwhile the Gladstone government had re- 

185 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

turned to power in England and Sir Edward 
Thornton replaced Sir William White at Constanti- 
nople. It was a sad mistake for all concerned, 
especially for Bulgaria. Sir Edward was a first- 
class ambassador of the stamp of Sir Henry Elliott, 
and the Gladstone government even more in sym- 
pathy with Bulgaria than Lord Salisbury; but Sir 
Edward was absolutely ignorant of everything con- 
nected with the political situation here, and Russia 
had the field to herself. He was recalled in a few 
months and Sir William White sent back, but not in 
season to save Prince Alexander. Lord Rosebery 
was responsible for this mistake, and bitterly re- 
gretted it before Sir Edward reached Constantinople. 
Personally I found Sir Edward a most intelligent 
and agreeable gentleman, and under ordinary cir- 
cumstances he would have filled the post with 
honor. But England has had no representative 
here since Lord Stratford who can be compared 
with Sir William White. He had a more compre- 
hensive and accurate knowledge of everything con- 
cerning the Eastern question than any other man 
living — and a better knowledge of all the men with 
whom he had to deal here and in Europe. Like 
Lord Stratford, too, he had unbounded faith in 
England and a lofty conception of her mission in the 
world. He felt that when he spoke it was England 
speaking, and he made those who heard him think 
so too. He was somewhat rough in his manners, 
like the typical English squire, and when he saw 
fit to be angry it was like the descent of a cyclone 
with plenty of thunder and lightning in his vocabu- 
lary. No man cared to experience it a second time. 

186 



THE GREAT CRISIS IN BULGARIA 

This was the Ambassador. Personally he was a 
man to be loved, of tender heart and deep religious 
feelings — a friend to be trusted to the death. He 
was a sincere Roman Catholic, but he used to say 
that I was his father confessor, which meant simply 
that he enjoyed talking with me frankly about 
whatever was in his mind or heart, whether of the 
political situation or of his deepest religious feelings. 
He always did most of the talking, and I have never 
met a man to whom it was more profitable or more 
entertaining to listen. 

The American minister here at that time was 
Hon. S. S. Cox, commonly known as Sunset Cox. 
He and Mrs. Cox were genuine Americans, who 
were more interested in their own people than in 
the foreign society of Pera. They were warm 
friends of the College, and we were indebted to 
them for many pleasant hours of social intercourse. 
I do not think that he enjoyed his position here, 
and he resigned it after two years; but he found 
time to write three very entertaining books, and the 
"Diversions of a Diplomat" show that he appre- 
ciated the humorous side of life here if he did not 
enjoy the tragic side of it, which he could not modify. 

There was nothing special in the inner life of the 
College during these two years which needs to be 
mentioned. They were years of very hard work for 
all of us — of peace, harmony and progress within 
the College — of considerable anxiety as to our 
financial prospects, and of deep sympathy with the 
trials of our students in the political situation of 
their nationalities. It was a wonder to us that they 
could do such good work in their studies. 

187 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

The graduating class in 1885 numbered 15, of 
whom 14 are living (1907). Nine were Bulgarians, 
4 Armenians, 1 Greek, 1 Hebrew. Of the Bulga- 
rians 3 are physicians, 2 merchants, 2 government 
officials, 1 lawyer, 1 professor of law in Sofia Uni- 
versity. Of the Armenians 1 is a teacher, 1 a manu- 
facturer, 1 is dead, 1 went to America, graduated at 
Massachusetts Agricultural School and is a prac- 
tical farmer in the interior, making his farm a model 
for others. The Hebrew is a lawyer in Bulgaria, the 
Greek in business. 

The class of 1886 numbered 20, of whom 16 are 
living. Twelve were Bulgarians, 8 were Armenians. 
Nine of the Bulgarians have been teachers at some 
time, 5 are so still, 2 army officers, 1 is a judge, 1 a 
merchant, 3 government officials. Of the Armeni- 
ans 5 are merchants, 1 Protestant pastor, 2 died 
soon after graduating. 



188 



CHAPTER XVI 



THE OVERTHROW OF PRINCE ALEXANDER. 1886-1888 

At the close of the twenty-third year the doctors 
sent me to Carlsbad for the cure there. When I 
reached Vienna on my return I heard from the 
British ambassador what was known of the kid- 
naping of Prince Alexander, and went at once to 
Bucharest to Sir William White, who had returned 
to his former post there, after leaving Constanti- 
nople. Prince Alexander had already passed on his 
return to Bulgaria, but his brother who had been 
with him was still with Sir William. From them I 
learned details, and to this day my blood boils with 
indignation whenever I recall them. For the Bul- 
garian officers who executed the will of the Czar 
there is this excuse. They had been educated in 
Russia — they were young and had grown up with 
no experience of a country of their own, towards 
whose sovereign they had any feeling of loyalty. 
They had just taken part in a revolution and evi- 
dently did not realize the infamous character of their 
treason, especially as they acted in the name of the 
Czar. But for the Czar, the cousin of Prince Alex- 
ander, the embodiment of the divine right of the 
sovereign, there is no excuse. He could not plead 
ignorance of the nature of the plot. He honored 
and rewarded his agents. He made no apology to 
the civilized world and pushed it to the bitter end, 

189 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

by making the peace of Europe depend upon the 
Powers uniting to drive Prince Alexander out of 
Bulgaria. 

It was a military plot carefully elaborated and 
carried out by officers who had fought under Prince 
Alexander at Slivnitza. They broke into the palace, 
seized him in the night, and hurried him off by car- 
riage to the Danube, where a steamer was waiting to 
take him to Russia. He was treated with the greatest 
indignity on the way and finally delivered over to 
Russian officials, who in turn transported him in the 
same fashion to the Austrian frontier town of Lem- 
berg. Lemberg did not love Russia, and Prince 
Alexander was received there with enthusiastic 
demonstrations of welcome, after his five days of 
suffering every indignity, to learn that all Bulgaria 
had risen against the traitors and demanded his 
immediate return. He went back, and his journey 
through Austria, Roumania, and especially in Bul- 
garia was like a Roman triumph ; but he went back 
to learn at Sofia that the enmity of the Czar was 
more bitter than ever, and to hear from the capitals 
of Europe, even from England, that the peace of 
Europe depended upon his abdication. He re- 
mained there only a few days, — long enough to re- 
store order and establish a regency to take charge of 
the government, — abdicated and left the country, 
with great difficulty persuading the people not to 
prevent his departure by force. So far as Prince 
Alexander was concerned the Czar had won the day 
by base means to which no other sovereign in 
Europe would have descended. Even Prince Milan 
had never thought of such barbarism; he never 

190 



THE OVERTHROW OF PRINCE ALEXANDER 

paid agents to assassinate the prince. But the Czar 
had forgotten the people of Bulgaria, who boldly 
defied him and all his plots to the day of his death, 
secured the permanent union of Bulgaria and East- 
ern Roumelia, and won the confidence of all the rest 
of Europe, and to-day Prince Alexander is the hero 
of the Bulgarians. When he died his body was 
brought to Sofia, and his mausoleum is the most 
sacred place in the city. The father of the Czar, 
who freed Bulgaria, is equally honored; but the 
name of Alexander III is, as far as possible, for- 
gotten. Prince Alexander came to Bulgaria a young 
man without experience and no doubt made many 
mistakes; but he identified himself with the people 
over whom he ruled, made every sacrifice for them, 
lived for them. He was a man of high character 
and very simple tastes, economical of the people's 
money and perfectly at home with the most humble 
of his subjects. As a ruler he developed rapidly, 
and had made great progress in educating the 
people in the science of self-government and in 
adapting the administration to their wants. His 
chief difficulties came from the constant intrigues 
of the Czar to make his position untenable. Bul- 
garia does well to cherish his memory. 

It was at this time that Stambouloff came to the 
front as one of the regents appointed by Prince 
Alexander, and commenced that terrible struggle 
with Russia for the independence of Bulgaria, 
which lasted to the day when he was murdered in 
the streets of Sofia, after he had seen Prince Fer- 
dinand firmly seated on the throne. The conflict 
began as soon as Prince Alexander had left the 

191 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

country, when General Kaulbars arrived as the 
representative of the Czar to get control of the gov- 
ernment, and continued on the part of Russia until 
the death of Alexander III by such means as are 
supposed to be peculiar to anarchists, rather than 
to emperors. In this conflict the Turks had the 
good sense to sympathize with the Bulgarians 
rather than with Russia, and were supported by the 
Western Powers, especially by England. 

The Bulgarians sought everywhere to find a 
prince who would accept the place in face of Russian 
opposition, and finally chose Prince Ferdinand of 
Coburg, a grandson of King Louis Philippe, but a 
resident of Austria. He was a young man about 
twenty-six years old, of whom little was known, by 
religion a Roman Catholic, and supposed to be 
favorably regarded by the Austrian government — 
a very different man from Prince Alexander. He 
had the courage to accept the place and to hold it, 
although he was not officially recognized by any 
Power until after the death of Alexander III. 

It was in the midst of this intense political excite- 
ment that the College opened in September, 1886. 
There was a general expectation of a European war 
and a general stagnation of business in Turkey and 
Bulgaria. In addition to this the Turks established 
a very strict quarantine against Bulgaria, partly for 
political reasons, but nominally because of an out- 
break of cholera on the Danube. The outlook for 
students was not promising, but, in spite of all ob- 
stacles, we had more than during the previous year. 
The character of our Bulgarian students was well 
illustrated by their determination to reach the Col- 

192 



THE OVERTHROW OF PRINCE ALEXANDER 

lege. One party of twelve, from places only two or 
three days from Constantinople, were four weeks 
making the journey ; having vainly tried two routes 
and spending a week in quarantine, they started 
anew and came over the mountains in carriages. 

The whole number of students, the twenty-fourth 
year, was 182, of whom 130 were boarders. Seventy 
were Bulgarians, 53 Armenians, 36 Greeks ; English 
and Americans 15, others 8. The first death in the 
College since my connection with it occurred this 
year — a most promising Bulgarian boy, who died 
in my arms after a painful illness of two weeks. 

Professor van Millingen was absent during the 
year on leave in America, without salary. The Board 
of Instruction for the year consisted of the president, 
four professors and eleven other instructors — and 
too much cannot be said of their absolute devotion 
to the work of the College and the highest interests 
of the students. Much time was given during the 
year to a thorough revision of our course of study, to 
meet, as far as our means allowed, the increasing 
demands of our patrons. One year was added to 
the Preparatory Department and the requirements 
for admission to the college classes correspondingly 
raised. The necessity of at least one new building 
had become so pressing that we began to take steps 
for its erection, hoping that the money might be 
found when we had obtained the necessary permis- 
sion from the Turkish government, the circumlocu- 
tion offices of the Porte requiring from one to two 
years, under constant pressure from the American 
Legation, to bring the matter to the attention of the 
Sultan and secure his action. We have never failed 

193 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

to get permission for any building that we have 
asked for and have never had our work stopped, 
although in this and most cases the official irade has 
not been received until after the building had been 
completed — which is a good proof of the friendly 
spirit of the Turkish officials. My personal relations 
with them have always been friendly. 

I have rather a vague recollection of the Com- 
mencement exercises of twenty years ago and few 
records of anything except my baccalaureate ser- 
mon and the order of exercises for the day ; but I 
have no trouble in recalling that of 1887, and what 
has fixed it in my mind was the closing prayer at the 
Commencement. It happened that Rev. Dr. Ar- 
thur Brooks of New York was one of the guests on 
that occasion. As he was an Episcopal clergyman 
accustomed to a formal service I hesitated about 
asking him to make an extemporaneous prayer, but 
he accepted the invitation at once, and such a prayer 
I have seldom heard. It was that of a man who 
lived in constant and intimate communion with God, 
and it brought us into His immediate presence in a 
w T ay which I can never forget. The presiding officer 
that day was Mr. Oscar S. Straus, the American min- 
ister, who made an admirable address, and there 
were twelve orations in five different languages by 
the graduating class. An Armenian bishop made 
a most sympathetic and interesting address. 

Immediately after the Commencement in June I 
went to America partly on private business neces- 
sitated by the death of my sister and partly to see 
the trustees in regard to the erection of a new build- 
ing. Mrs. Washburn had gone to America two 

194 



THE OVERTHROW OF PRINCE ALEXANDER 

months before. The trustees approved of going on 
with preparations for a new building, but with the 
understanding that I should come to America in 
1889 to raise money for it. We waited in America 
for the marriage of my son, and after visiting friends 
in England reached Constantinople early in Novem- 
ber, to find the College going on as usual, but with a 
falling off in the number of boarders. 

The whole number the twenty-fifth year was 170, 
of whom 113 were boarders. Sixty were Bulgarians, 
55 Armenians, 33 Greeks, 19 English and Ameri- 
cans, 3 others. 

Looking back upon it now, it would seem that the 
most important event of the year was the visit to the 
College of Mr. and Mrs. John S. Kennedy of New 
York in May, 1888. It was the beginning of an 
interest in the College on their part which has gone 
on deepening ever since, and been of incalculable 
value to us, and which is one of many illustrations of 
the way in which God has raised up friends for the 
College, when we most needed them, without any 
plan or forethought of ours. Such experiences as 
these have done more than anything else to sustain 
my faith in the College as really God's work and 
not ours. I believe that its success is due to the fact 
that from its foundation we have sought to make it 
first of all a Christian college. It is as such that God 
has blessed it. Our political influence has inciden- 
tally been very great. We have done our best to give 
our students a thorough and practical secular edu- 
cation, but I believe that the people of the East, of 
all religions, rate the moral and religious influence 
of the College as its most important work. In our 

195 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

summer in Bulgaria, I was struck with the fact that 
in all the addresses presented to me, the first thing 
spoken of was the religious influence of the College, 
and I believe that the same feeling exists among the 
Greeks and Armenians — to some extent at least 
among the Turks. They sometimes say, " Of course 
my son will not cease to be a Mohammedan, but I 
want him brought up with English morality." 

Our most trying experience was in the spring of 
1888, when Mrs. Washburn and Professor Pana- 
retoff came down with scarlet fever at the same 
time, taken, in an act of charity, from a poor boy 
whom they brought across the Bosphorus in a caique 
with them. Miss Farley, who was also in the boat, 
had had the scarlet fever before and was immune. 
In our crowded quarters there was nothing to be 
done but to cut off our apartment from the rest of 
the building, absolutely except for a dumb waiter 
which connected our dining-room with the kitchen, 
Mrs. Washburn in one room and Professor Pana- 
retoff in another. From the 9th of April to the 13th 
of May I took the whole care of both of them, night 
and day, no other person but the doctor ever enter- 
ing our apartment. Mrs. Washburn was very dan- 
gerously ill, but happily Professor Panaretoff's case 
was a mild one. In the end the whole apartment 
was thoroughly disinfected, and there has never been 
a case of scarlet fever in the College since. The 
College work went on as usual, under the direction 
of Dr. Long. 

The last visitor whom I saw before going into 
quarantine was Mr. Walter, the proprietor of The 
London Times, whom I had met in England, 

196 



THE OVERTHROW OF PRINCE ALEXANDER 

when visiting at Newstead Abbey. I was sorry not 
to see more of him here, for the editors of The 
Times had long been among my good friends in 
England, and they were friends worth having. 

Before the college year ended we were saddened 
by another death among our students, a German 
from Roumania, who died after a long illness of 
typhoid fever. It was a strange case. For several 
weeks until a few days before he died he would have 
gone to his classes if the thermometer had not 
shown that he had the typhoid fever and was grow- 
ing steadily worse. He was the only child of a 
widow, and his mother, who had been ill herself, 
arrived here only just before his death. 

As this was the twenty-fifth year of the College it 
seemed to us appropriate to inaugurate the annual 
celebration of Founder's Day, which we fixed for 
the 23d of March, Mr. Robert's birthday. It was 
made a holiday in the College, with a religious ser- 
vice at nine in the morning and a thanksgiving din- 
ner for the students in the evening. It was not de- 
signed so much to glorify Mr. Robert as to have an 
appropriate occasion to make our students under- 
stand the object for which the College was founded, 
the motives of the founders and the principles which 
we were trying to act upon — our ideal of a Chris- 
tian college. This day has been observed each year 
ever since and has served to keep fresh the memory 
of Mr. Robert, Dr. Hamlin, Dr. Long and others to 
whom our students are indebted for the privileges 
which they enjoy. 

The class which graduated in 1887 numbered 26, 
of whom 23 are living (1907). Thirteen were Bul- 

197 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

garians, 10 Armenians and 3 Greeks. Of the Bul- 
garians 4 are government officials, 3 teachers, 3 
physicians, 2 merchants, 1 a lawyer. Of the Armeni- 
ans 7 are merchants, 1 a physician, 1 a publisher, 1 
a civil engineer. Of the Greeks 1 studied medicine, 
1 is a dentist and 1 a merchant. 

The class which graduated in 1888 numbered 28, 
of whom 24 are living. Fifteen were Bulgarians, 12 
Armenians, 1 Greek. Of the Bulgarians 3 are phy- 
sicians, 3 teachers, 2 judges, 2 merchants, 1 a lawyer, 
1 a government official, 1 a civil engineer, 1 died soon 
after graduation, 1 unknown. Of the Armenians 6 
are merchants, 2 teachers, 2 government officials, 1 a 
civil engineer, 1 an agriculturist. The Greek, who is 
now in the office of the American Bible Society, was 
sent to the Chicago Exposition in an official capacity 
in 1893 by the Turkish government. 

The American minister, Mr. Oscar S. Straus, pre- 
sided at the Commencement exercises in the old 
study hall on both these occasions. He was then 
and has been ever since a warm friend of the Col- 
lege. 



198 



CHAPTER XVII 



ARMENIAN AND BULGARIAN TROUBLES. 1888-1890 

In the summer of 1888 the doctors sent me to 
Carlsbad again, and Mrs. Washburn went with me 
to recruit after the sickness and work of the previous 
year. We had a delightful summer, meeting many 
friends, and stopping at Sofia on our way home, 
where we had an enthusiastic reception. We came 
back early in September to arrange our apartment 
for a new order of things before the term opened. 

During the previous year the Faculty had passed 
the following resolution: "Resolved, That with a 
view of relieving the president of all duties not 
properly connected with his office, the trustees of the 
College be requested to send out a man at the begin- 
ning of the next college year, if a proper person can 
be found, who shall live in the college building 
with his family, take charge of the boarding de- 
partment and students' accounts, have a general 
supervision of the boarders out of study hours and 
aid in their physical and moral training." A full 
consideration of the subject satisfied the trustees 
that no one could take my place in Hamlin Hall who 
had not the rank and work of a professor, and after 
due deliberation they appointed Rev. Charles An- 
derson Professor of Ethics, Rhetoric, Oratory and 
Physical Culture, with the understanding that he 
should live in the College building and relieve me 

199 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

of the duties mentioned in the resolution. Mr. 
Anderson had been a tutor in the College for three 
years from 1869 to 1872, after which he graduated 
at Andover Theological Seminary and was at this 
time the pastor of a church in Woburn, Mass. His 
wife was a daughter of Dr. Hamlin. For a year we 
all lived together in Hamlin Hall until I went to 
America in the summer of 1889. I was very glad to 
welcome him as a colleague; but Mrs. Washburn 
and I have never ceased to regret that, with in- 
creasing years, our strength had so far failed that 
we had to give up this common life with the tutors 
and students in Hamlin Hall. When we returned 
from America we lived in Kennedy Lodge, the 
president's house on the college grounds, and so 
long as Professor Anderson lived in Hamlin Hall 
the College suffered no loss. 

The number of students this year was somewhat 
less, owing to the unsettled state of affairs in Turkey 
and Bulgaria. The number registered was 158, of 
whom 104 were boarders. There were 52 Bulga- 
rians, 43 Armenians, 33 Greeks, 20 English, 5 
Americans, 3 Turks, 7 others. 

The condition of the Armenians had grown 
steadily worse since the Berlin Congress, especially 
in the interior. The policy of England was largely 
responsible for this. She had undertaken to defend 
their rights and secure reforms in the Turkish ad- 
ministration and had encouraged them to look for- 
ward to the establishment of an autonomous prov- 
ince of Armenia, partly out of sympathy for this 
Christian race and still more in her own interest, as 
she believed that an autonomous Armenia would be 

200 



ARMENIAN AND BULGARIAN TROUBLES 

a barrier against the farther advance of Russia. It 
was not an anti-Turkish policy, for England had no 
desire to acquire any of her Asiatic territory, and 
believed that the Turkish government would be 
strengthened by such changes. She utterly failed to 
convince the Sultan of this, and could not induce 
him to do anything to ameliorate the condition of 
his Christian subjects. Unhappily a certain num- 
ber of Armenians conceived the idea that it would 
be possible to force the hand of England in the same 
way that the Russian government had been forced 
by popular excitement over the massacre of the 
Bulgarians to declare war against Turkey; and they 
organized secret revolutionary societies with the 
object of bringing about a crisis, which would re- 
sult in such atrocities on the part of the Turks as 
had taken place in Bulgaria, but, as they believed, 
would force England and Europe generally to in- 
tervene in their behalf, and create an independent 
Armenia. I did not personally know any of these 
revolutionists, but I used whatever influence I had 
with the Armenians whom I knew to make them see 
that they had everything to lose and nothing to gain 
by such movements — that there was no similarity 
between the situation of the Armenians and the Bul- 
garians, and no hope of any European intervention 
to make them independent. So far as I; know they 
got the same advice from all the embassies here, 
and the sober minded among them saw the truth of 
it; but the revolutionists would listen to no one. 
What would have happened if these societies had 
not been formed I do not know, but their activities 
have been the excuse put forward by the Turks for 

201 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

all the massacres and persecutions of the last twenty- 
five years. I shall have occasion to speak of these 
later on. In 1888-1889 the most serious troubles 
were in Armenia, where the Kurds were encouraged 
to harry the Armenian population without mercy. 
England succeeded at this time in getting one of the 
principal Kurdish chiefs, Moussa Bey, brought to 
Constantinople for trial. The atrocities which he 
had committed were innumerable and unspeakable ; 
incidentally he had very nearly killed an American 
missionary, but his trial was a farce and changed 
nothing in Armenia. Here and throughout the 
country the hostility of the government, the im- 
prisonment of great numbers on suspicion, and the 
agitation of the revolutionists excited a feeling of 
terror and general unrest. The number of our 
Armenian students was reduced more than fifty per 
cent. 

It was not the fault of the Turks that the same 
state of things existed in Bulgaria, and made the 
position of Prince Ferdinand precarious. All the 
Bulgarian troubles came from Russia. As the Rus- 
sian governors left in Bulgaria after the war had 
told them, "It was not for the beautiful eyes of the 
Bulgarians that Russia had sacrificed so many lives 
and so much treasure, but it was to build a bridge 
to Constantinople." Prince Alexander had been 
removed, but now Prince Ferdinand and Mr. Stam- 
bouloff blocked the way, supported by the great 
majority of the Bulgarian people. It was war to the 
knife against them. Murder and treason were pat- 
ronized and paid for by Russia, and it was pitiful to 
see how some really honest and patriotic men were 

202 



ARMENIAN AND BULGARIAN TROUBLES 

deceived and won over to the belief that it was neces- 
sary for Bulgaria to sacrifice everything to please 
the Czar. Some of them were graduates of Robert 
College, although in general our alumni were loyal 
to Bulgaria rather than to the Czar. At Constanti- 
nople Sir William White was the principal support 
of Bulgaria. All these foreign intrigues and the un- 
certainty of the future greatly delayed the develop- 
ment of the country and led to an excessive expendi- 
ture of money and men, in keeping up a large and 
efficient army. It was this generally unsatisfactory 
state of things which so greatly reduced the number 
of Bulgarian students. 

The work of the College went on satisfactorily 
during the year, and Mr. Straus secured permission 
for the erection of a new building for the College and 
a house for the president. But when the papers 
finally came from the Porte there was no mention of 
the college building in them. Somebody in the office 
of the Grand Vizier had been paid by some enemy 
of the College to omit it. We had already com- 
menced work on the building on plans prepared by 
Professor Hamlin of Columbia University, and 
some months of anxiety followed, although we did 
not stop the work. Happily the Grand Vizier was 
friendly. He acknowledged that the fraud had 
taken place in his department, although he declared 
that he could not find out who was responsible for it, 
and in the end he secured for us the necessary irade 
from the Sultan. 

In the autumn of 1888 we had the pleasure of see- 
ing the United States flag once more on the Bos- 
phorus. The Quinnebaug came up here again, 

203 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

but no American war vessel has appeared here since, 
although all the Great Powers of Europe have two 
each stationed here. It is due chiefly to the oppo- 
sition of Russia and Germany that this right has 
been denied us. We enjoyed our acquaintance with 
the officers, and they challenged our students to a 
game of baseball, in which I am sorry to say our 
boys were beaten, the game having been played 
under stricter rules than they were familiar with. 
However, it did our boys good. 

In the summer of 1889, as had been agreed with 
the trustees, I went to America to raise money for 
the new building. I returned in May, 1890, at the 
earnest request of Dr. Long, and remained here 
until after the Commencement, when I went back to 
finish my work, which occupied me until the sum- 
mer of 1891. During my absence Dr. Long was 
acting president of the College. 

The twenty-seventh year of the College opened in 
September, 1889, with about the same number of 
students as the previous year, 164 in all, of whom 
104 were boarders. Forty-five were Bulgarians, 47 
Armenians, 41 Greeks, 20 English and Americans, 
11 others. 

At the close of this year Professor Grosvenor re- 
signed his place as professor here and returned to 
America, where he has ever since been a professor 
in Amherst College, his and my Alma Mater. First 
as tutor and then as professor he had been con- 
nected with the College for twenty-one years — a 
progressive scholar, a devoted, enthusiastic co- 
worker in all the activities of the College, and a suc- 
cessful teacher, with a charming family, he had 

204 



ARMENIAN AND BULGARIAN TROUBLES 

filled a large place in the life of the College. In his 
well-known book on Constantinople he has associ- 
ated his name with the place. 

It was during this year that Professor Ormiston 
published an arithmetic adapted to the wants of the 
various nationalities in the College. It has not met 
with the same fate as the geography of the Turkish 
Empire which we published some years earlier. 
The geography of the empire changed so rapidly in 
the following years that the book became a political 
curiosity. 

The letters which I received in America this year 
from the professors were not altogether optimistic, 
but had a good deal of criticism of the state of things 
in the College. Some of them thought that I ought 
to return at once, and others that I ought to stay in 
America until I had raised money enough to put the 
College upon a better foundation. Various schemes 
were proposed for improvements, which would 
broaden our curriculum and raise the standard of 
scholarship. Except as they showed some lack of 
harmony in the Faculty, I was neither surprised nor 
discouraged by these criticisms. I knew very well 
that we were not realizing our own ideal or meeting 
the demands of some of our patrons, and it was en- 
couraging to know that the professors and teachers 
were not satisfied with their work. If they could not 
coin money, they could at least do their very best 
with what they had. I do not think that we had as 
promising material in the College at that time as in 
previous years, and this taken together with the 
serious falling off in the number of our students was 
discouraging, whatever might be the reason of it, 

205 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

whether it was due to our deficiencies or to circum- 
stances altogether beyond our control. I am con- 
vinced that long-continued political agitation, es- 
pecially when it is revolutionary in its character, is 
unfavorable to sound education. I believe that this 
is true everywhere. It is certainly true in my ex- 
perience. We have a striking illustration of it to-day 
in Russia, and I have seen plenty of it in Turkey and 
the neighboring states. Boys and young men are 
the first to be demoralized in such movements. We 
have done our best always to keep the College free 
from such influences, but at the time of which I am 
writing, boys came to us whose minds were already 
distracted by what was going on in the political 
world, and it was hard to make them see that the 
best thing they could do for their nation was to en- 
lighten and discipline their own minds and fit them- 
selves by study to become intelligent and worthy 
citizens. In the early history of the College many of 
our students, especially the Bulgarians, came to us 
with exactly this conception of their duty ; but this 
sort of patriotism is no longer common, although we 
have never relaxed our efforts to develop it. 

All the nationalities were abnormally excited, the 
Greeks quite as much as the Armenians and Bulgari- 
ans. By way of a demonstration against the Turkish 
government and the Bulgarians, the Greek Patriarch 
had closed all the Orthodox churches and suspended 
religious services. It was a crisis over the question 
of Macedonia, where the Turks sometimes favored 
the Greeks and sometimes the Bulgarians — nomi- 
nally a church question, but in fact purely political, 
as it continues to be to this day. That these warring 

206 



ARMENIAN AND BULGARIAN TROUBLES 

nationalities can meet on equal terms in Robert 
College and live together in peace, as in general they 
do, is itself an important part of their education. 

The graduating class in 1890 numbered 11, of 
whom 10 are now living. Three were Bulgarians, 
3 Armenians, 4 Greeks and 1 English. Of the 
Bulgarians 1 is a merchant, 1 a lawyer and 1 a phy- 
sician. Of the Armenians 2 are merchants, 1 a 
Protestant minister. Of the Greeks 1 became an 
editor, 1 a physician, 2 are in business. 

The class of 1891 numbered 8. Four were Ar- 
menians, 3 Bulgarians, 1 Greek. Of the Armenians 
1 is a teacher, 1 a dentist, 2 merchants. Of the Bul- 
garians 1 is an army officer, 1 a teacher, 1 in dip- 
lomatic service. The Greek is a merchant. 

From this time on the Bulgarians no longer con- 
stitute the majority in our graduating classes. 

I suppose that before this those who read this 
book have been impressed with the small number of 
our graduates who have become clergymen. It 
should be remembered that but few of our gradu- 
ates are Protestants. They belong to the Oriental 
churches, and although serious efforts have been 
made to educate the clergy in these churches, this is 
not yet a career which is attractive to an educated 
young man. The higher and educated clergy are 
celibates, and the priests are generally uneducated. 
Several servants have gone from our college kitch- 
ens to be priests, but I have never been able to 
persuade a graduate to undertake this service in an 
Oriental church. It has seemed to them that it 
would diminish rather than increase their influence 
for good. Many have done good work as teachers. 

207 



CHAPTER XVIII 



ANOTHER TWO YEARS IN AMERICA. 1889-1891 

In the summer of 1889 Mrs. Washburn and I 
went to America at the request of the trustees to 
raise money for new buildings and for endowment. 
Professor Panaretoff went with us and returned 
for the opening of the college year. Professor van 
Millingen took my classes during my absence. We 
were tired out when we left Constantinople, and 
we took our journey very leisurely, stopping to see 
our friends in Germany and England, and visiting 
Oxford and Cambridge universities. I was not 
at all well when I reached Boston, and one of my 
friends invited me to go with him to Poland Springs 
to recruit. A few hours before we were to start he 
sent a messenger to say that unexpected business 
would prevent his going that day, so I went out to 
spend Sunday with my mother in the country. 
That night I came down with typhoid fever, and it 
was two months before I left my bed. It was mid- 
winter before I could begin my work for the College. 
In a few weeks I broke down again, and the doctors 
sent me to Florida, or, more accurately, the doctors 
said I must go, and Mr. Kennedy sent me with Mrs. 
Washburn, who was just leaving the hospital in 
Philadelphia. 

When I entered upon my work I found the situ- 
ation quite different from what it was ten years 

208 



ANOTHER TWO YEARS IN AMERICA 

before when I made my first campaign in America, 
just after the Russo-Turkish War. There was 
much less interest in Turkish affairs and in the 
fate of Bulgaria. Robert College w^as more widely 
known and perhaps more fully appreciated, al- 
though by no means so generally known in America 
as it was in Europe. Mr. Stead, when he visited 
Washington in the first administration of President 
Cleveland, was horrified, as he told me afterward, 
to find that Mr. Bayard, then Secretary of State, had 
never heard of Robert College ; and like a true news- 
paper man he blamed me for not blowing my trum- 
pet so loud that all America would hear it. I pro- 
tested that some things were better done with the 
least noise possible, but he improved the opportu- 
nity, at a dinner given to him that night by the Rus- 
sian ambassador, to declare that Robert College 
had more influence in the East than either Russia or 
England, and that it would end in Americanizing 
Turkey, for which I did not thank him. It was a 
fact in America that it was chiefly in religious society 
that the College was known, while in England and 
Russia, for example, it was best known in the min- 
istries of foreign affairs, and known on account of 
the incidental influence of the College in Bulgaria 
rather than for its real purpose as a Christian college. 

The College was not less appreciated in religious 
circles in America, but it was no longer unique. Its 
success had not only modified the policy of foreign 
mission boards, but had already led to the estab- 
lishment of similar institutions in other parts of the 
world, in connection with the missions of different 
religious denominations. While I met with less 

209 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

criticism of the College than ten years before, on 
the part of good people who did not believe in edu- 
cation as a legitimate form of missionary work, the 
interest of the givers for such work was now divided. 
Other colleges in foreign lands were in need of 
money just as we were, and I had no desire to stand 
in the way of their getting it, even when they took it 
out from under my hands. It was the Lord's money 
going into the Lord's work just as much as though 
it came to Robert College. 

I can never forget as long as I live, and I believe 
that I shall remember with thanksgiving in another 
world, all the kindness and sympathy that I met 
with during these two years. It seemed like a reali- 
zation of Christ's promise of the hundredfold in 
this world. It was freely given by old friends and 
new, who treated me as a brother beloved when they 
had nothing but gratitude and love to expect in 
return. All that was painful in this work for the 
College came from a lack of confidence in my own 
ability to present the claims of the College in such a 
way as to make them understand. When I broke 
down in New York and was sent to Florida I felt 
as though my mission was a failure. We had a 
delightful winter, regained our health, made many 
friends, interested ourselves in much good work 
that we found going on there, and learned much of 
the burning questions which were agitating the 
country. Among other friends at St. Augustine we 
were specially indebted to Rev. and Mrs. Edwin 
K. Mitchell of the Presbyterian church, who did all 
they could for us and to interest others in the 
College. I had a letter of introduction from Mr. 

210 



ANOTHER TWO YEARS IN AMERICA 

Kennedy to Mr. Flagler, and he was very kind. He 
even offered to furnish the needed funds, if I would 
drop Constantinople, to found a college at St. Au- 
gustine, but he had no interest in Turkey. We went 
as far south as Lake Worth and found kind friends 
there; but when I returned to Mr. Kennedy's in the 
spring with no money for the College, I felt as 
though my winter was a failure. It was not long 
after this that I received a note from Mr. Alanson 
Trask, of whom I had seen much at St. Augustine, 
inviting me to call on him in Brooklyn. I called 
and he gave me five thousand dollars. A year or 
two later he gave twenty-five thousand dollars more, 
also unsolicited. 

In the spring I had to go to Washington to con- 
sult with Mr. Blaine and Senators Sherman and 
Edwards in regard to a treaty with Turkey which 
had been negotiated by Mr. Straus under the direc- 
tion of Mr. Bayard, but which had not been acted 
upon by the Senate. In general it was a very good 
treaty, but it denationalized a number of persons 
who had long been recognized as American citizens, 
and on this ground I recommended that it should 
not be ratified, without modifications. Mr. Blaine 
withdrew it, with the consent of the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs. I had never met Mr. Blaine before, 
and my previous experience with American Secre- 
taries of State had not led me to anticipate such a 
reception as he gave me. The charm of his manner 
was a revelation to me. He received me as though I 
had been an old friend whom he was delighted to 
see and asked me questions which implied that he 
knew all about me and Robert College, and had 

211 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

nothing more important to do than to enjoy an 
hour of social intercourse. I understood then the 
great secret of his popularity in the country. Sena- 
tors Sherman and Edwards were very different men, 
but they were very cordial and asked the Senate in 
secret session to furnish me with all the papers 
relating to the treaty, that I might give them a 
full memorandum on the subject, which I did. 
Washington was not a good place to raise money, 
but I found many warm friends there, some of 
whom I had known in Constantinople. 

In the autumn of 1891, by advice of the trustees, 
I attended the meeting of the American Board in 
Minneapolis. I had visited St. Paul in 1857 when 
it was a modern village, and the change which 
had taken place there seemed miraculous. I had 
some very dear Constantinople friends living in 
the Northwest Territory four hundred miles west 
of Winnipeg, and so I went by Montreal and the 
Canadian Pacific to visit them on my way to 
Minneapolis. When I left the train at a station 
fifty miles from their home, in the night, I was as- 
tonished to hear my name called by a young man, 
who took my valise as I stepped on to the platform 
in the dark, and still more astonished when I came 
into the light to see an old student of Robert College, 
who had heard accidentally that I was coming and 
had walked eight miles, after his day's work, to 
welcome me. When I returned to Winnipeg I had 
a very hearty welcome from the Presbyterian Col- 
lege and the churches there. They knew more 
about Robert College than the majority of similar 
people in the United States. I did not expect to get 

212 



ANOTHER TWO YEARS IN AMERICA 

any money at Minneapolis, but it was a delightful 
and profitable experience in the renewal of many 
old friendships, and profitable in the opportunity 
it gave me to consult with others engaged in similar 
work, as well as to make known what Robert 
College was doing. I had hoped to get some money 
in Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland on my way 
back, and I was not altogether disappointed; but I 
found my friends too heavily burdened with good 
work near home to spare much for Constantinople, 
and that many of their gifts at home were really 
drafts on the future. I shall never forget two or 
three days that I spent at Lake Forest and the re^ 
ception given me there by Dr. McClure. At Chi- 
cago I found a home with Mr. Blatchford, always 
a warm friend of mine and of the College. 

I visited a good many colleges and universities to 
interest the students in our work and met with a 
hearty welcome, especially at Amherst, Williams, 
Hamilton and Princeton. I found college presi- 
dents generally ready to aid me in every way in 
their power, and with a keen appreciation of the 
value of the work we were doing in Constantinople, 
and I met a number of peripatetic Western college 
presidents on begging expeditions in the East, who 
could at least sympathize with me if they did not 
help me. One gentleman on whom I called re- 
ceived me almost with a groan and opened con- 
versation with the information that I was the 
seventh college president who had called on him 
that day, and intimated that we left him no time to 
attend to his own business. 

With the ministers I had a varied experience. 

213 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

Some of them evidently looked upon me as a wolf 
trying to enter their fold — or at least as a sneak- 
thief. Some wished me all possible success in 
churches of my own denomination, or at least in 
some other congregation than theirs. I did not 
blame them. It was easy to understand that they 
felt that their people were already distracted by the 
multiplication of the appeals made to them. On the 
whole I found the ministers most sympathetic and 
ready to do anything in their power to help me. If 
I had been strong enough I might have had a 
good congregation to speak to every Sunday, in the 
strongest churches; and I did a good deal of this 
work with profit, especially in New York, where I 
was received as a brother in the ministerial club, 
Chi Alpha, which united the leading Presbyterian, 
Dutch Reformed and Congregational ministers in 
the city. Very precious memories are connected with 
the members of this club. Some of the Episcopalian 
clergymen also were very friendly and ready to help 
me. So were Dr. Hale of Boston and several other 
Unitarian ministers. The editors of the religious 
newspapers were mostly old friends of mine and 
were always ready to lend a hand. The same thing 
was true of some of the daily papers. I have no 
doubt about the value of their support, although I 
have seldom known any money to come from this 
source alone. For that matter I never, when I spoke, 
appealed for a general contribution, although I 
know of some large gifts which have been prompted 
by addresses that I made. Dr. Field, Dr. Ward, Dr. 
Abbott and the Primes, all the professors in the 
Union Theological Seminary, Dr. Taylor, Dr. van 

214 



ANOTHER TWO YEARS IN AMERICA 

Dyke, Dr. Hall, Dr. Booth, Phillips Brooks and his 
brother Arthur, are only a few of many devoted 
friends whom I might name among the ministers 
and editors. And I had no more enthusiastic sup- 
porters than our former tutors who were then oc- 
cupying various important positions in America. 

With all this sympathy and support it would 
seem that I ought to have found it easy to raise all 
the money we asked for. It was not the Lord's 
will. He gave us what He saw that it was best for 
us to have. I say this the more confidently because 
most of the money which has come to us since 
has not come from any immediate solicitation on 
my part, and most of what I got at that time 
came without my directly asking for it. As a gen- 
eral rule when I asked I got nothing but sympathy 
and often only a polite refusal without sympathy. 

There were some very interesting exceptions to 
this which were like flowers strewed along my path. 
The late Cornelius Vanderbilt was one of them. I 
had never met him when I went to his office at the 
Central Station to ask him for money; but he knew 
something of the College, and he listened to what I 
had to say and questioned me as though it were a 
part of his business, which it was necessary for him 
to understand. He gave me a thousand dollars then 
and another donation later on. Another exception 
was Mr. Elbert W. Munroe. In answer to a letter 
he invited me to come to his house in the country, 
where he and Mrs. Munroe received me most cor- 
dially and carefully questioned me as to everything 
connected with the College. Later on they sent for 
me again and gave me five thousand dollars. It was 

215 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

not simply the cordiality with which I was received, 
it was not simply the money given, which impressed 
me so happily; it was the fact that the money was 
given after a careful and conscientious consideration 
of the real worth of the College in the Kingdom of 
God. 

I went to America to ask for fifty thousand dol- 
lars for buildings and at least one hundred thousand 
dollars for increased endowment. Mr. J. S. Ken- 
nedy gave the money for the president's house, 
which we call Kennedy Lodge, and I found the 
money for the building now known as Albert Long 
Hall. Through Professor Newton of Yale Univer- 
sity, the children of Mrs. Lois Newton of Sherburne, 
N.Y., gave the property left by their mother, about 
fifteen thousand dollars, for the establishment 
of one-hundred-dollar scholarships for the sons of 
Protestant clergymen in Turkey or Bulgaria, or for 
other Christian young men - — a very timely gift. 
But aside from this very little was added to the en- 
dowment. 

In May, 1891, I returned to Constantinople, 
somewhat disappointed, but thankful for what had 
been accomplished and with precious memories of 
my two years in America. 



216 



CHAPTER XIX 



IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COLLEGE. 1890-1892 

For the greater part of the twenty-eighth year I 
was in America, but returned before its close. 

The number of students registered was 159, and 
for the third successive year the number of board- 
ers was 104. Of the whole number 59 were Ar- 
menians, 41 Bulgarians, 39 Greeks, 13 English and 
Americans, 7 others. 

The twenty-ninth year the number registered was 
194, of whom 130 were boarders. Seventy were 
Armenians, 52 Bulgarians, 47 Greeks, 13 English 
and Americans, 12 others. 

The increase in the number of students which 
commenced this year was undoubtedly due in some 
measure to the new signs of life in the College, in 
the erection of new buildings. No such outward 
signs had appeared for many years. We had not 
even built a wall around the college grounds. This 
also was done in 1891, and it added wonderfully to 
the general impression of the prosperity and dignity 
of the College. We continued our efforts to obtain 
permission to build a sewer to the Bosphorus, but 
it was still years later that we obtained it. No per- 
mission could be had to build it along the road 
through the Turkish Cemetery, as it was said that 
there might be graves of some of the faithful under 
the roadway which would be desecrated by a sewer. 

217 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

It was finally built by a circuitous route through the 
old castle. 

On our return from America we went to live in 
Kennedy Lodge, although it was not quite finished, 
Professor Anderson continuing to live in Hamlin 
Hall. There is no more beautiful site for a house in 
any part of the world that I have seen than that of 
Kennedy Lodge, which we occupied until 1904. 

The political situation during these two years was 
essentially unchanged — the Russian government 
was still plotting against the existing regime in Bul- 
garia in a way which tended to demoralize the 
people. It was about this time that Dr. Vulcovitch, 
the Bulgarian diplomatic agent at Constantinople, 
was assassinated in front of his own house by per- 
sons protected by the Russian Embassy. The con- 
flict between the Greeks and Bulgarians over the 
ecclesiastical affairs in Macedonia went on as be- 
fore. The Turkish government was not unfriendly 
to Bulgaria so long as Russia w T as hostile to it, but 
it was suspicious of Bulgarians coming to Constan- 
tinople; and in September, 1890, one of our students 
was arrested and thrown into prison on his return 
after a vacation because a copy of Freeman's " Sketch 
of European History " was found in his trunk. We 
secured his release after a few days, but the incident 
was typical of what our students often suffered on 
account of their books. I once went myself to the 
Ministry of Public Instruction to protest against 
the seizure of some French text-books which were 
issued by the French government. The official 
whom I found in charge was a native of India who 
spoke English very freely. He refused to give up 

218 



IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COLLEGE 

the books, although he acknowledged that they con- 
tained nothing to object to except a notice of Vol- 
taire's drama of Mohammed, which in fact was 
very complimentary to the Prophet. I asked on 
what principle they condemned books. He replied 
that they would admit nothing which mentioned the 
Turkish government or the Mohammedan religion 
favorably or unfavorably. I objected that this 
would exclude history, cyclopedias, dictionaries, 
and a great amount of literature, Shakespeare for 
example. "Well," he said, "what the devil do 
you come here for, anyway ? Why can't you let us 
go to hell in our own way?" And then he very 
politely bade me good-morning. I never got the 
books. 

There was no change for the better in the affairs 
of the Armenians. The agitators were not numer- 
ous, but they were active in stirring up discontent 
in the country and in appealing to public opinion 
in Europe. The Turkish government did nothing 
in the way of reform and was increasingly active in 
measures of repression. The old friendly feeling 
between the Turks and Armenians, who had al- 
ways been regarded with more favor than the other 
Christian nationalities and who seemed to under- 
stand each other better, had given place to distrust 
and fear. It seemed as though the government was 
doing what it could to develop this mutual distrust, 
and desired to bring about a conflict, and was thus 
playing into the hands of the revolutionists who be- 
lieved that such a conflict would bring about a 
European intervention. The sober-minded Arme- 
nians had no sympathy with the revolutionists, and 

219 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

saw plainly that the hope of their people scattered 
all over the country was not in rebellion, but in the 
peaceful progress of enlightenment. It was this 
feeling which had led so many to send their sons to 
Robert College. The event proved that the Sultan 
had a much more accurate knowledge of European 
politics than the revolutionists and their friends 
in Europe. We saw many European statesmen in 
Constantinople in those days who came here as to 
a storm centre to see more clearly what was to be 
expected. The most interesting among those whom 
I saw was Mr. Chamberlain, who at that time ap- 
peared to have sacrificed his own career to his loy- 
alty to the unity of Great Britain and Ireland. I 
had seen him in the House of Commons, where I saw 
no other who was his equal in debate, and I found 
him one of the most intelligent and interesting in- 
vestigators of the Eastern question. England suf- 
fered a great loss at this time in the sudden death of 
Sir William White in Berlin, where he had gone to 
spend Christmas. If the time ever comes when the 
government allows the publication of his private 
papers, which it took possession of after his death, 
it will be the most interesting of books. They sent 
Sir Philip Curry here as ambassador in his place, 
another acquaintance that I had made through 
Lord Salisbury at the same time that I first met Sir 
William White. He had never had any experience 
in the diplomatic service, but had been private sec- 
retary of Lord Salisbury and later Under Secretary 
for Foreign Affairs. He was always a good friend of 
mine and of the College. My relations with him 
were as pleasant as they had been with Sir William 

220 



IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COLLEGE 

White, and in general I was in sympathy with 
the English policy here. It was neither anti-Turk- 
ish nor anti-Russian, a policy of peace and not of 
war, but not peace at any price. England would 
have resisted the conquest of southeastern Europe 
by Russia, and she favored the natural solution of 
the Eastern question in the development of the 
smaller states, Greece, Bulgaria, Roumania and 
Servia. So in regard to the Asiatic provinces of 
Turkey, what she aimed at was not the destruction 
or the weakening of the Turkish power, but the 
strengthening of it by good government and the fair, 
just and equal treatment of all the Christian sub- 
jects of the Sultan, especially of the Armenians. In 
securing this she did not wish to act alone but in 
concert with the other Powers. Whether a more 
active policy two years later would have prevented 
the calamities which followed is not a question to be 
discussed here. 

Another old friend of the College died soon after 
Sir William White — Mr. Heap, who had been for 
some years consul-general of the United States at 
Constantinople. He was born in the consular service 
at Tunis, where his father was consul. 

We lost our leading French teacher in 1892, not 
by death, but by the will of the Sultan, who took 
him to teach his sons ; and he is still in service at the 
palace, although the last time I met him, he told me 
that he had not given a lesson for eighteen months. 
This was the second time that the Sultan had taken 
one of our teachers, the first being a German. 

In the winter of 1891-92, following a visit 
from Mr. Wishard, the secretary of the Collegiate 

221 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

Y. M. C. A., a branch of this organization was 
founded by our students which was adapted to the 
peculiar wants of this polyglot institution and was 
at the same time in full harmony with the general 
society. 

It was composed of four sections: Armenian, 
Bulgarian, Greek and English, each using its own 
language and meeting three times a month, united 
in one General Association, meeting once a month 
and using only the English language. Most of the 
personal work in each nationality is conducted 
under the direction of the respective sections. The 
president of the General Association is always a 
member of the Faculty. This society is now con- 
nected with the International Association and has 
been represented at various general meetings in 
Europe. 

It was during the twenty-ninth year that I be- 
gan to take some part in the preparation for the 
proposed Parliament of Religions, to be held in 
Chicago in 1893, and I had some very interesting 
interviews with the heads of different religious com- 
munities and others whom I invited to be present in 
person or by deputy. I sympathized heartily with 
Dr. Barrows' plans and did what I could to help 
him, although I had not so great faith as he had in 
the practical results which would follow. I found all 
the religious communities afraid to commit them- 
selves by sending official representatives, but, in one 
way or another, they were represented. Constan- 
tinople itself is a Parliament of Religions, but the 
discussions are not irenic, and it is very difficult for 
people to understand how they can be. The Sun- 

222 



IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COLLEGE 

day congregation at Robert College comes nearer to 
the ideal than any that I have seen. 

We did our best during the twenty-ninth year to 
make some advance in the College internally as well 
as externally. We had a very harmonious Faculty, 
and the work done was reasonably satisfactory. 
Professor van Millingen became Professor of His- 
tory and English Literature. Mr. Ormiston spent 
the year 1891-1892 at Johns Hopkins University in 
Baltimore, and on his return was appointed Profes- 
sor of Chemistry and Mineralogy. Professor Eliou 
had been made professor and the head of the Greek 
Department, which he had already raised to a level 
with the Armenian and Bulgarian. We suffered, as 
we always have, from the excessive amount of lin- 
guistic work which is demanded in this country. 
Some wag proposed, when the College was founded, 
that it be named Babel College, and it was not al- 
together a joke. We met the difficulty in part by 
making the College course five years in place of 
four, but we have not escaped giving additional time 
to the vernacular of each nationality, to meet the in- 
creasing demands of the Bulgarian and Greek gov- 
ernments and the popular sentiment of the Armeni- 
ans, The Turkish government will no doubt make 
equal demands in the course of time. It is reason- 
able, and we have no desire to denationalize our stu- 
dents and unfit them to be leaders of their own 
people. 

The question of elective courses had already 
forced itself upon us, and we yielded something in 
this direction. I suppose that it is heresy to confess 
this now, but I did not believe in elective courses in 

223 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

colleges and never favored them. I do not believe 
in them now. They belong to the university, and, as 
Professor Miinsterberg once said, the American col- 
lege of to-day seems to me to be a cross between a 
university and a kindergarten. The old college was 
a place of severe discipline, mental and moral. It 
has dropped out in America, and nothing has taken 
its place. It may be true that in this age of speciali- 
zation the "all-round man" of the old time is an 
impossibility. Certainly it is hard to find one; 
but it seems to me all the more necessary for the 
specialist to have four years of general discipline 
and culture, with no option as to what he will study, 
before he begins to specialize; and I say this with- 
out any reference to the many obvious abuses of 
the elective system, which are not an essential part 
of it. We have yielded something in the way of 
electives without giving up our idea of what a college 
ought to be, and we are forced to have a preparatory 
department to meet the peculiar wants of the 
country. The majority of our students have never 
graduated or intended to graduate when they 
entered. We do our best for them and have reason 
to be proud of some of them, but we wish that all 
who are capable of it might have the full course of 
discipline and culture necessary for graduation, for 
their own sake and for the good of their people. 

The new college building, which was then called 
Science Hall, but which since Dr. Long's death has 
been named for him, was completed in the spring of 
1892. It was furnished by Mrs. Davies of New 
Haven, the sister of Mrs. Professor van Millingen. 
The Chemical Department was in the basement, the 

224 



IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COLLEGE 

museum, library and Department of Physics on the 
first floor. The whole of the upper story was occu- 
pied by a hall, which was divided by a movable par- 
tition into a chapel and lecture room. It was de- 
signed by Professor Hamlin of Columbia University 
and built by Mr. Burness, a Scotch builder, who is 
one of the most respected and reliable men in Con- 
stantinople and has put up most of our buildings. 
The college buildings and Kennedy Lodge are all 
built of blue limestone quarried on the campus. 

It was in the great hall of the new building that we 
celebrated the Commencement exercises June 26, 
1892, with an audience of nearly a thousand, includ- 
ing the British ambassador, diplomatic representa- 
tives of Austria, Holland, Greece and Bulgaria, 
and many other official and distinguished guests of 
various nationalities. This was the formal inaugu- 
ration of the building. I was not present on this 
happy occasion, having started for America at the 
end of May to recruit my health and return in 
September. 

It was the beginning of better days, but the 
class which graduated was the smallest since 1874, 
only five in number, and smaller than any class 
since. Four were Armenians and 1 a Bulgarian. 
The Bulgarian is now a merchant in Russia. Of 
the Armenians % are merchants, 1 a dentist and 1 
a physician. 

The class of 1891 numbered 8, 4 Armenians, 3 
Bulgarians and 1 Greek. Of the Armenians 1 is a 
teacher, 1 a dentist, 1 a merchant, 1 unknown. Of the 
Bulgarians 1 is in the diplomatic service, 1 an army 
officer and 1 a teacher. The Greek is a merchant. 

225 



CHAPTER XX 



TRYING TIMES IN TURKEY. 1892-1894 

The number of students registered the thirtieth 
year was 203, of whom 143 were boarders. Seventy- 
three were Armenians, 60 Bulgarians, 46 Greeks, 15 
English and Americans, others 9. The thirty-first 
year the number registered was 200, of whom 123 
were boarders. Sixty-eight were Armenians, 65 
Greeks, 44 Bulgarians, 14 English and Americans, 
others 9. 

These two years were the beginning of more try- 
ing times in the country and in the College, mingled 
with many experiences for which we were very 
grateful. In Constantinople itself the thirtieth year 
was comparatively uneventful; but the Armenian 
troubles in the interior were increasing, and special 
complaints were made against the American 
schools. Hon. A. W. Terrell, an ex- Confederate 
officer from Texas, had been sent here by President 
Cleveland to represent the United States, and we 
were under his protection for four years. He was 
without diplomatic experience and in many ways 
a typical Texan of the old school; but he was a 
brave, warm-hearted, reconstructed American of 
great natural ability, who did his best to defend 
American citizens and American interests. We 
were under constant and great obligations to him. 
He had a talk with the Grand Vizier one day in 



TRYING TIMES IN TURKEY 

1893 which is worth noting here. The Grand 
Vizier said they had no reason to complain of the 
Jesuits, because they always spoke well of the Turks, 
but " where did you ever see anything good said of 
the Turks by an American missionary?" Mr. 
Terrell replied, "Why, I was at the Commence- 
ment exercises of Robert College, and I heard the 
president charge those young men to be loyal to 
the sovereign, and then I heard him pray for the 
Sultan." "Oh, yes !" said the Grand Vizier, "that 
was Robert College. That is altogether different. 
Did any one ever hear of the government having 
any fault to find with Robert College ? Robert 

College is all right, but those people at are 

quite different." 

It is easy to say good things about the Turks. We 
live in the most friendly relations with them and 
always find good things to say about them. What 
the Grand Vizier meant was, good things about the 
Turkish government. There are some good things 
to be said about this also. Robert College has 
reason to be grateful that for the last forty years it 
has never interfered with our work in any way, or 
refused any of the requests that we have made for 
new buildings or for the protection of our students, 
and that it has freed us from taxation. In return for 
this it has always been our purpose to respect its 
laws and its wishes. We have taught our students to 
do the same thing, and have never tolerated any 
seditious movements among them. 

Personally, outside the College, I have expressed 
my own opinions as to the policy of the government 
and used what influence I had in favor of what 

227 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

seemed to me the true interests of all the people 
of Turkey. I love these people, and I could not do 
otherwise. I only regret that I have not been able 
to do more for them. 

The saddest event of the year for the College was 
the sudden death of Mrs. van Millingen on a French 
steamer from Marseilles. She went to America with 
me in the spring and was returning with Professor 
Panaretoff. The news of her death came to us by 
telegraph from Athens, while we were having a 
general Thanksgiving Day dinner at Kennedy 
Lodge, as a shock never to be forgotten. No one in 
the College filled a larger place in our hearts and 
lives than she did, and her memory will be cherished 
as long as any of those who knew her continue to live. 

The records of the Faculty show that much time 
was given during the year to the perfecting of the 
course of study. Among other things importance 
was given to the development of vocal and instru- 
mental music, which had never been altogether 
neglected, but which had been kept in the back- 
ground by our poverty, although its importance for 
our students had been recognized. Our students 
were able in June to give a concert, with the aid of 
their teacher, which attracted a large audience from 
all parts of the city and brought in about a hun- 
dred dollars for the charity fund of the Y. M. C. A. 
Something was also done to provide commercial 
instruction for those who desired it. I had taught 
bookkeeping in the College myself for many years, 
so far as I considered it an essential part of every 
educated man's preparation for life. I believed 
that incidentally it had also an ethical value. 

228 



TRYING TIMES IN TURKEY 

The French Department was organized and put 
on a solid foundation by the appointment of a 
permanent instructor to direct it* It had never been 
satisfactory to us or to our students up to this time, 
as our teachers were constantly changing and 
often inexperienced. 

The Scientific Department also made very satis- 
factory progress, with the advantage of the new 
Science Hall and the division of work between Dr. 
Long and Professor Ormiston. Through the kind- 
ness of a friend in Pittsburg, Pa., large additions 
were made to our apparatus, and our museum was 
enriched by a complete and beautiful collection of 
the fish and the algae of the Bosphorus, besides a 
number of prepared skeletons of birds and ani- 
mals. 

The marriage of Professor Ormiston and Miss 
Farley left the College without a matron, and we 
had the good fortune to find a lady to take her 
place who was an experienced trained nurse, Miss 
Meredith Hart, who has ever since filled a large 
place in our college life, and to whom teachers, 
their families, and students who have been sick 
owe a debt of gratitude which cannot be expressed 
in words, but which is never forgotten. 

In the summer of 1893 I went to America to at- 
tend the Parliament of Religions at the Columbian 
Fair. At Chicago Mrs. Washburn and I were the 
guests of our dear friends Mr. and Mrs. Blatchford. 
I spoke on Mohammedanism and Christianity, and 
was so far successful in presenting a fair statement 
of the former that no complaint was made of it 
at Constantinople, although Orthodox Mohamme- 

229 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

dans naturally could not accept the address as a 
whole, while some of my Turkish friends here re- 
ceived it with favor. I also delivered an address on 
the Aim of Foreign Missions. The Parliament of 
Religions was much discussed at the time and in 
the following years, bitterly attacked by some and 
greatly exalted by others. It is certain now that 
neither the fears of the one party nor the hopes of 
the other have been realized. My own deliberate 
opinion is that it did no permanent harm and much 
real good. It fell to Dr. Barrows to bring out, 
define and express to the world a thought which was 
already working in men's minds, and which is now 
the source of much of the religious controversy 
going on in the world. It was well that it should be 
brought out by a man who had unshaken faith 
in the Divine origin of Christianity, and there is 
no reason to fear that it will not in the end lead to 
a clearer conception of what Christianity means. 

While in America and after my return I was drawn 
into a public and private discussion in regard to the 
secret society known as the Mystic Shrine of Mecca, 
which professes to be affiliated with the Mohamme- 
dan order of Bektashi dervishes, some of whom in 
Constantinople are near neighbors and special 
friends of mine. It is true that Orthodox Moham- 
medans look upon the Bektashis as a heretical sect, 
but they are Mohammedans. If this American 
society is what it professes to be, its members are 
Mohammedans who do not live up to their faith, 
for the first duty of a Mohammedan is to confess his 
faith and defend it. If it is a fraud and a parody on 
Mohammedanism, it is an insult to a great religion 

230 



TRYING TIMES IN TURKEY 



which is a shame to America. The Bektashis here 
are still in doubt as to which it is, and so am I. 

When the thirty-first college year opened in 
September, 1893, Constantinople was surrounded 
by quarantine stations which made all travel very 
difficult, and about the same time cholera broke out 
in the city and continued with more or less severity 
until April, with sanitary regulations which caused 
even more excitement and alarm than the disease 
itself. The number of students coming from Bul- 
garia and other places fell off seriously. I managed 
to get back by way of Trieste with only one day of 
quarantine, but the land quarantines were more 
dangerous to health than the cholera, and it was a 
wonder to us that so many students came. 

As we had deliberately increased our expenses 
considerably by the appointment of new teachers, 
and in reasonable expectation of an increased 
revenue from students, we found ourselves under 
the necessity of cutting down the salaries of all our 
professors until we were relieved from our financial 
difficulties by a special contribution from seven of 
our tried friends in America who came to the rescue. 
This is the only time in the history of the College 
that we have made such an appeal to our friends. 

In July, 1894, just after our Commencement, 
came the great earthquake which caused the death 
of some fifteen hundred people, destroyed or seri- 
ously injured many thousand houses and public 
buildings, and caused such ruin in the bazaars that 
the seven thousand shops there had to be aban- 
doned. The shocks lasted about a month, and 
great numbers of the people camped out in the 

231 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

fields, cemeteries and open places for much of 
this time. The College buildings were vigorously 
shaken but not seriously injured; and, so far as is 
known, none of the many earthquakes here have 
ever done serious injury on this part of the Bos- 
phorus. The centre of disturbance is the line 
where the Silurian formation of the Bosphorus 
meets the Miocene strata in old Stamboul. At 
the time of the first shock Professor van Millingen 
and Professor Ormiston were engaged in archaeo- 
logical work in the dungeons of the old prison 
of Anema, under the old walls of the city. Their 
escape from being buried alive there was almost 
a miracle. 

It was during this year that the Armenian troubles 
took an acute form in the massacres in the Sassoun 
district in Armenia and were followed by a Euro- 
pean intervention. The Christians in that part of 
the empire had long been a prey to the Kurdish 
tribes, unprotected by the Turkish government; 
but in this case the Turkish troops, under orders 
from Constantinople, took part in the massacre and 
plunder of the Armenians, and the work of their 
extermination was officially commenced. England 
called upon the Powers which had signed the treaty 
of Berlin and guaranteed the good treatment of the 
people of Armenia to intervene. England, France 
and Russia took the lead in demanding redress for 
what had been done and such changes and reforms 
as would secure the lives, property and rights of 
the Armenians in those provinces where they 
constituted an important part of the population. 
The Turks soon discovered that England was the 

232 



TRYING TIMES IN TURKEY 

only Power to be feared in this question and that the 
"Concert of Europe" would not tolerate any inde- 
pendent action on her part. 

Schemes of reform were devised by the ambassa- 
dors and discussed with the Turks, who refused to 
accept any kind of foreign control of the reforms 
demanded, but professed all manner of good inten- 
tions. So the negotiations went on month after 
month, while the political excitement in the coun- 
try steadily increased and the condition of the Chris- 
tians grew worse, until the climax was reached in 
the great massacre of 1895-1896. These were trying 
times for the College, where it required all our energy 
and skill to keep the minds of our students on their 
work; and as a result of the earthquake and the 
cholera there was great distress in the city, and many 
well-to-do families were reduced to poverty. In 
August the destruction of a town in Bulgaria by 
fire ruined several families whose sons were in the 
College. 

I was not present at the Commencement exer- 
cises in 1894. I was in bed, attended by several 
doctors who could not agree as to the cause and 
nature of the sudden attack which seemed to 
threaten my life; but happily they did agree as to 
what should be done for me, and I survived. I was 
well in the morning, though tired out, as I generally 
was at the end of the year; but a stormy interview 
of two hours with a half crazy student, who threat- 
ened all kinds of vengeance on me and the College 
and had to be quieted down before the public 
exercises, very nearly finished my work in the 
College. I recovered in season to leave Constanti- 

233 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

nople for Switzerland the evening before the great 
earthquake, and thus escaped the great nervous 
strain of a month of earthquake shocks which 
caused the death of hundreds of people. 

The number of graduates in 1893 was 13. Of 
these, all of whom are living, 6 are Bulgarians, 3 
are Armenians, 3 are Greeks and 1 is English. Of 
the Bulgarians 1 is a merchant in West Africa, % 
are lawyers and 3 physicians. Of the Armenians 1 
is a merchant, 2 are or have been teachers. Of the 
Greeks 1 is an instructor in Robert College, 2 
are in business. 

The number of graduates in 1894 was 21, all but 
one of whom are living, Of these 8 were Armenians, 
6 Bulgarians, 4 Greeks, 2 English, 1 American. Of 
the Armenians 4 are merchants 2 teachers, 1 a den- 
tist, 1 unknown. Of the Bulgarians 3 are in the civil 
service in Bulgaria, 2 lawyers, 1 a teacher. Of the 
Greeks 3 are merchants, 1 a teacher. The English 
are merchants. The American is a civil engineer 
in America. 



234 



CHAPTER XXI 



REORGANIZATION OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 
1894-1896 

Great and important changes took place during 
this period in the constitution of the Board of 
Trustees. Mr. Booth, who had been president of the 
Board from the beginning, died in December, 1895 ; 
and Dr. Coe, who had been secretary from the first, 
had to resign on account of illness and died in 
February, 1895. Mr. Hatch and Mr. Vermilye, the 
treasurer, had also died. Mr. Kingsley resigned. 
Dr. Coe's son, Rev. Edward B. Coe, D. D., LL. D., 
took his father's place. Mr. William C. Sturges, 
president of the Seaman's Savings Bank, became 
treasurer in place of Mr. Vermilye, Mr. Cleveland 
H. Dodge and Mr. W. T. Booth, the son of the 
former President, joined the Board, and finally Mr. 
John S. Kennedy consented to become the President. 

Whatever progress the College has made since 
that time is due to the generous support, the wise 
counsels and the active efforts of this new Board of 
Trustees. The College opened in 1894 with 205 
registered students, of whom 116 were boarders. 
There were 80 Greeks, 63 Armenians, 36 Bul- 
garians, 13 English and Americans, 13 others. 

The thirty- third year there were 221 registered, 
of whom 132 were boarders. There were 92 Greeks, 
69 Armenians, 37 Bulgarians, 8 English and Ameri- 
cans, 4 Turks, 11 others. 

235 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

For the first time in the history of the College the 
Greeks outnumbered the Armenians and the Bul- 
garians. The Bulgarians had fallen off, owing to 
the establishment of government gymnasia, where 
students were educated at very small cost to their 
parents, and on account of the many difficulties put 
in the way of Bulgarians coming to Constantinople 
by the Turkish government. Constantinople was 
no longer a political or a business centre for Bul- 
garia. The Armenians were suffering from the po- 
litical troubles here and in the interior. The 
Greeks, on the other hand, had come to realize at last 
that this was not a Bulgarian college, that it was no 
part of its object to attack or weaken the Orthodox 
Church, and that our Greek Department offered to 
them everything that they could ask in the way of 
mental and moral discipline. They had come to 
appreciate the real value and importance of our re- 
ligious instruction and our efforts to build up the 
character of our students. 

Professor van Millingen was absent on leave 
during the year 1894-1895. Otherwise the Faculty 
was unchanged. The following year the College 
was saddened by the death of Mr. Charles H. Dur- 
fee, a tutor who had just come to the College, but 
had already won the hearts of teachers and students. 
He had an attack of typhoid fever, and I took him to 
Kennedy Lodge. It seemed a mild attack, but the 
second week he suddenly died, when Miss Hart 
and Mrs. Washburn were both with him. 

Mr. Hagopian had gone to America for his health 
at the end of the thirty-second year and on account 
of the Armenian troubles did not return for four 

236 



REORGANIZATION OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES 

years. He spent most of the time studying in the 
University of Edinburgh, where he made hosts of 
friends. He had never had anything to do with 
revolutionists, but the Turkish government was in- 
discriminate in its arrest and imprisonment of all 
Armenians coming from Europe or America, and it 
was thought better that he should delay his return. 
His stay in Scotland fitted him for the position of 
adjunct Professor of Philosophy, which he now oc- 
cupies in the College. 

In reading the correspondence of these years and 
the following one I am surprised to find that through 
all these trying times, when it now seems to me a 
wonder that the College continued to exist, we kept 
up our courage and were optimistic in our hopes for 
the future. We suffered, and suffered keenly ; some- 
times it seemed more than we could endure, but it 
was not for ourselves. Our friends in America were 
alarmed and anxious about us, and Mr. Kennedy 
offered to send us a steam yacht upon which we 
might take refuge in case of need. We were very 
grateful, but felt that the appearance of such a 
steamer anchored near the College might of itself 
create a panic which would endanger those about 
us. It was a serious question at one time whether 
we ought not to suspend the College, as Mr. Robert 
had advised at the time of the Bulgarian massacres, 
but so long as the Turkish government manifested 
no inclination to molest any one within our walls 
we felt that there was every reason why we should 
keep our doors open. 

This is not the place to enter into any details of 
the events of these two years, and I have not the 

237 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

satisfaction of feeling that any influence of mine 
modified the action of the Turkish government or 
did the Armenians any good. I can only claim that 
it never did them any harm. I had influence in Lon- 
don and here and used it in efforts to put a stop to 
the extermination of the Armenians, but the real 
defender of Turkey through all these horrors was 
Russia. No doubt the Russian government looked 
upon the massacre of Armenians in Turkey as it 
has since looked upon the massacre of the Jews at 
home, as a matter of little consequence, with which 
the outside world had no concern. She made it a 
question of the peace of Europe that there should 
be no armed intervention here; and while she joined 
England and France in demanding reforms, it was 
apparently with the purpose of playing into the 
hands of the Turks. 

After the Sassoon massacres and the official in- 
vestigation of them, which had no practical result 
except to turn a stream of charity into the country 
from England and America, the negotiations here 
went on while the sufferings of the Armenians 
steadily increased. In the autumn of 1895 the em- 
bassies encouraged the Armenians here to break the 
deadlock in their negotiations by presenting a peti- 
tion to the Grand Vizier. They asked permission 
and received it, but it was revoked at the last minute, 
when troops were sent to prevent the presentation. 
A collision resulted between troops and petitioners, 
which was followed by a cold-blooded massacre of 
some eight hundred Armenians in the streets, most 
of whom had nothing to do with the petition. 

Als such things never happen in Constantinople 

238 



REORGANIZATION OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES 

without the knowledge and approval of the govern- 
ment, it is generally believed that this first massacre 
of Armenians here was a bold and carefully devised 
plan to test the spirit of the European Powers, be- 
fore entering upon a general slaughter throughout 
the empire. If it proved that such things could be 
done with impunity, in face of Europe, under the 
very eyes of the ambassadors, it would be safe to go 
on without fear of intervention. In England the 
Liberal government, which had been honestly and 
earnestly devoted to securing the rights of the Ar- 
menians, had fallen, and Lord Salisbury had come 
into power. The Turks felt that it was time to test 
his policy. I was in London in July, on my way to 
America, and was asked to see Lord Salisbury. My 
old friends in the Liberal government could not have 
expressed their determination to put an end to the 
existing state of things in Turkey in stronger lan- 
guage than he did. When I reached England on my 
return five days had passed since the massacre, and 
I went to the Foreign Office to see Lord Salisbury 
and get the latest news. I found that Lord Salisbury 
was in France, the Under Secretary, Mr. Curzon, in 
the north of England, and the Permanent Secretary 
in Scotland. The whole Foreign Office was taking 
a vacation. I went to see Mr. Chamberlain, the only 
other minister whom I knew, and he was in Spain. 
It was a week later that Lord Salisbury returned. I 
had come on to Constantinople and did not see him, 
but I know that he finally realized the gravity of this 
crisis and was ready to send a fleet to Constan- 
tinople. He thought that it was too late to act 
summarily and alone, and he entered into commu- 

239 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

nication with the other Powers. For a time it 
seemed as though something might be done, but 
Russia finally put her veto on it, and the " Con- 
cert of Europe" contented itself with demanding 
the immediate acceptance of the meagre scheme 
of reform which it had agreed to, which in fact 
amounted to nothing, and which did not delay the 
general slaughter which commenced in a few weeks 
and went on for a year. It was in vain that the ter- 
rible details of these massacres were published to 
the world, and that in England and America, and to 
some extent in France and Italy, public opinion was 
roused to demand some form of intervention. These 
publications simply exasperated the Turks and 
failed to interest the " Concert of Europe." What- 
ever plans the Sultan had he carried them out to the 
bitter end without fear, only tolerating the distribu- 
tion of great sums of money which were contributed 
in Europe and America to relieve the suffering of 
those who survived the massacres. 

During the college year of 1895-1896 we realized, 
as no one out of the country could realize, the signifi- 
cance of what was going on in the interior, and the 
burden of the people's suffering was hard to bear; 
but we had no fear of any massacre in Constanti- 
nople or any serious danger for the College. Once 
only we were made to feel the dangers about us. 
One of our Greek students, who had friends in Pera, 
left the College secretly one afternoon, after having 
been refused permission to go, and went with his 
friends to the theatre. They were insulted by a 
Turk who sat near them, and our student com- 
plained of it to the manager. The Turk waylaid 

240 



REORGANIZATION OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES 



him as he came out of the theatre and murdered him. 
I went to his funeral in the Greek church in Pera 
and was startled to find hundreds of armed Cepha- 
lonians (he was from Cephalonia) ready to escort 
the procession through the principal streets of the 
city. Thanks to the precautions taken by the po- 
lice, no one interfered with this demonstration. It 
was not the policy of the government to stir up 
trouble with the Greeks at this time. 

We had an alarm of cholera in the city in 1895 and 
the usual quarantine, which deprived us of a visit 
from our dear friends Mr. and Mrs. William E. 
Dodge, who were on their way to Constantinople, 
but turned back from Athens to escape the quaran- 
tine. 

Later we had a very interesting visit from Bishop 
Potter of New York, who made an admirable ad- 
dress to the students. 

Our most distinguished visitor was Prince Ferdi- 
nand of Bulgaria. He had at last been officially 
recognized by all the Powers and had come to visit 
the Sultan. He came to the College, attended by a 
brilliant retinue of Turkish and Bulgarian officials 
and guards, made himself very agreeable to the Bul- 
garian students, and took afternoon tea at Kennedy 
Lodge, where he was kind enough to say that Robert 
College had been a nursery for Bulgarian statesmen 
and he hoped that it would continue to be so. He 
did not know it, but he drank his tea out of a cup 
that once belonged to his grandfather, then Louis 
Philippe, King of France. 

The question of beneficiaries became more press- 
ing and more difficult during these years of political 

241 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

troubles and financial distress. From the founda- 
tion of the College this question had been discussed 
more than any other. Mr. Robert never favored 
our aiding as many students as we did, and was al- 
ways cautioning us about it, while here the most try- 
ing experience that we had was the constant refusal 
of applications for aid of this kind. We were agreed 
upon certain principles: no free students; no 
promise of aid for more than one year; no benefi- 
ciary to be continued whose scholarship and con- 
duct were not of the best; no aid to any but those 
whose parents were really unable to pay more than 
one half. We were also agreed that the College 
ought to do something for the poor as well as the 
rich, and we rejoiced when Mr. Walter Wood of 
Philadelphia and the children of Mrs. Newton and 
occasionally others furnished funds for this pur- 
pose ; but in general we had to face the fact that the 
greater part of the aid which we gave had to come 
out of the general funds of the College, which at best 
were not sufficient to meet our expenses. Almost 
every year we have voted to reduce the number re- 
ceived, but we have seldom had less than fifty stu- 
dents (the majority day scholars) who paid only one 
half the regular charges. It is much easier to lay 
down general principles than to apply them to all 
special cases. So long as we had room for such ad- 
ditional students and they did not necessitate addi- 
tional teachers and they fulfilled our requirements, 
there were always special and exceptional reasons 
why this or that one should be received, so that we 
generally had a few more than we intended to re- 
ceive. I think that this liberality on our part has 

242 



REORGANIZATION OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES 

been appreciated by the different nationalities in the 
East and is one of the reasons why they support the 
College, and it has always seemed to me that while 
it is unwise to receive free students, who are not 
likely to appreciate what costs them nothing, in aid- 
ing a certain number we are simply carrying out the 
purpose for which the College was founded. Some 
of our most distinguished graduates were half-pay 
students. Some have disappointed us, but on the 
whole I see no reason to regret that, out of our pov- 
erty, we have aided so many to secure the advan- 
tages of an education in Robert College. 

The Commencement exercises in 1895 and 1896 
brought together great crowds as usual, with many 
distinguished guests who were afterward enter- 
tained at Kennedy Lodge. The government had 
prohibited all such gatherings in the city, but they 
treated our case as exceptional and made no objec- 
tion to it, probably because the American minister 
presided on these occasions and the English ambas- 
sador and other ministers always attended. Still we 
felt it necessary to take every precaution against 
any appearance of anything like a political demon- 
stration. We had no address by any of the guests, 
and the orations were all in English or French. The 
only really trying moment on these occasions was 
when the band opened the exercises with the Hami- 
die March, the Turkish national air, and the audi- 
ence was expected to rise. If they had kept their 
seats this would have been a political demonstration 
beyond our control, which would have made trouble. 
Happily they did not. 
The number of graduates in 1895 was 15. Six 

243 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

were Bulgarians, 5 Armenians, 3 Greeks, 1 was Eng- 
lish. Of the Bulgarians 3 are teachers, 1 a judge, 1 
in diplomatic service, 1 in business. Of the Arme- 
nians 3 are merchants, 1 a civil engineer, 1 pastor 
of a Protestant church in Constantinople. The 3 
Greeks are in business, and the Englishman is the 
agent of the Cunard Steamship Company in Con- 
stantinople. 

The number of graduates in 1896 was 6, of whom 
5 are living. Three were Bulgarians, 2 Armenians, 
1 a Greek. Of the Bulgarians 2 were lawyers, 1 
a teacher. Of the Armenians 1 is in business, 1 
a Protestant minister. The Greek is a musician. 



244 



CHAPTER XXII 



THE GREAT CONSTANTINOPLE MASSACRE. 1896-1897 

In the summer of 1896 everything in Constanti- 
nople seemed to be quiet, and most of the gentlemen 
connected with the College went away for the vaca- 
tion. Professor Panaretoff and I went to Austria to 
the Saltzkammergut. We found nothing but rain 
and floods there and started for the Carpathians; 
but in Vienna Professor Panaretoff was ordered by 
his doctor to go to Carlsbad. As I was left alone I 
went to the Millennial Exhibition in Budapest for a 
few days and returned to Constantinople on Satur- 
day, August 22. The following Wednesday I went 
up the Bosphorus to call at the English Embassy 
and to lunch with Mr. Dimitroff at Buyukdere. I 
returned about 4 o'clock, and, soon after, some one 
came in great excitement to say that the Turkish 
army had revolted, plundered the Ottoman Bank 
and were slaughtering people in the streets. I at 
once took all possible precautions for the protection 
of the College and the families. It turned out that 
the news which I had received was incorrect, but 
that something equally terrible was going on in 
town. It had been a beautiful day, and several of 
our lady friends had been in town and found it very 
difficult to get back through streets which were al- 
ready running with blood. 

What had happened was this. About noon a band 

245 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

of Armenians, most of them from Russia, entered 
the Ottoman Bank, with arms and dynamite, took 
the employees prisoners and barricaded themselves 
in the building, with the threat that, unless the am- 
bassadors at once secured a pledge from the Sultan 
of certain reforms, they would blow up the bank 
with dynamite. To finish with this part of the story, 
soldiers soon surrounded the bank, and negotiations 
began with the captors which in the evening re- 
sulted in their being permitted to leave the bank, go 
on board the yacht of the chief manager and leave 
the country unmolested. 

Who originated this plot I do not know, but it is 
certain that the Turkish government knew all about 
it many days before, even to the exact time when the 
bank was to be entered ; and the Minister of Police 
had made elaborate arrangements, not to arrest 
these men or prevent the attack on the bank, but to 
facilitate it and make it the occasion of a massacre 
of the Armenian population of the city. This was 
to be the crown of all the massacres of the year, one 
worthy of the capitol and the seat of the Sultan, a 
final defiance to the Christian world. Not many 
minutes after the attack on the bank the bands of 
Turks, who had been organized by the Minister of 
Police in Stamboul and Galata, commenced the 
work of killing every Armenian they could find, pro- 
tected by large bodies of troops, who in some cases 
took part in the slaughter. Through Wednesday, 
Wednesday night, Thursday and Thursday night 
the massacre went on unchecked. An open tele- 
gram was sent by the ambassadors to the Sultan 
Thursday night, which perhaps influenced him to 

246 



THE GREAT CONSTANTINOPLE MASSACRE 

give orders to stop the massacre, and not many were 
murdered on Friday. I do not care to enter at all 
into the horrible details of this massacre of some ten 
thousand Armenians. Very few of them were able 
to make any serious resistance. Very few women or 
children were killed, and these only in certain quar- 
ters where the houses were attacked and looted. 
Many Turks looked upon the whole thing with 
horror and protected the Armenians in their own 
houses. An American negro sailor, stranded here, 
whom the Turks took to be a Mohammedan, saved 
one house full of refugees. We had a number of 
Armenian servants in the College, and a few others 
took refuge there. Thursday night there was a mas- 
sacre of Armenians just below us at Bebec and 
another opposite us at Candilli. The British gun- 
boat came and took off the British residents and 
offered to take us, which we declined. Ruffians 
gathered at Hissar to massacre and plunder the Ar- 
menians here, but the leading Turks drove them off 
in the early evening. We had five Montenegrans at 
the College, and about midnight I left them to patrol 
and guard the grounds, with orders to wake me if 
any attack was made on us. We had already buried 
what we could of our valuables. 

Not long after we retired, the gate-keeper came to 
say that a company of Turkish soldiers was at the 
gate and demanded admission, saying that they 
were sent by order of the Sultan to protect us. It 
seemed wise to assume that this was true and admit 
them to the grounds, while the Montenegrans still 
guarded Hamlin Hall, where all our Armenians had 
taken refuge. The colonel who came with them 

247 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

went away, and the captain left in command told 
the gate-keeper that they had come because they 
knew the College was full of Armenian revolution- 
ists whom they expected to capture. Which of these 
statements was true I do not know, but it was a very 
anxious morning for us, as we and our Armenian 
servants were at the mercy of these soldiers, of whose 
real mission we were in doubt. The next day these 
men were replaced by twenty other soldiers under 
the charge of a captain whose family lived in Hissar. 
The government claimed that they were necessary 
for the protection of the College, and I furnished 
them with quarters in the back part of the study 
hall building. We were not expected to do anything 
else for them. They were of the regular army, genu- 
ine Turkish peasants from Asia Minor, quiet and 
good natured; and the four months they remained 
there was a continuous holiday for them, as the cap- 
tain did not trouble himself to drill them. They 
never made any disturbance or gave us any trouble 
of any account; but after the College opened in 
September they were a source of constant anxiety, 
and we had to watch our students with untiring 
vigilance to see that they did not get into conflict 
with the soldiers, especially as we had a number 
of new Turkish students along with some sixty 
Armenians. 

The massacre of the Armenians came to an end 
on Friday, the day after the soldiers came to the Col- 
lege; but the persecution of them which went on for 
months was worse than the massacre. Their busi- 
ness was destroyed, they were plundered and black- 
mailed without mercy, they were hunted like wild 

248 



THE GREAT CONSTANTINOPLE MASSACRE 

beasts, they were imprisoned, tortured, killed, de- 
ported, fled the country, until the Armenian popula- 
tion of the city was reduced by some seventy-five 
thousand, mostly men, including those massacred. 
They were replaced by Kurds and men of other wild 
tribes. Since that time it is very difficult for an 
Armenian to get permission to come to Constanti- 
nople from the interior. The poverty and distress 
of those left alive in Constantinople was often 
heartrending, and many women and children died 
of slow starvation. That this persecution still con- 
tinues in a milder form is undoubtedly due to the 
criminal agitation kept up by a few revolutionists in 
Europe and the United States, whose chief business 
is the blackmailing and murder of their own people. 

Sir Michael Herbert, the British charge d'affaires, 
and some of the ambassadors did what they could 
to stop the massacre of the Armenians, and some 
of the consuls aided the Armenians to escape from 
the country after the massacres ; but the " Concert 
of Europe " did nothing. It accepted the situation. 
The Emperor of Germany went farther. He sent a 
special embassy to present to the Sultan a portrait 
of his family as a token of his esteem. 

Under all these circumstances, and in doubt as to 
what worse calamities might be in store for us, it 
was with much hesitation that we opened the Col- 
lege as usual on the 15th of September, only eighteen 
days after the massacre. Most of the Faculty was 
absent, and the decision had to be made by the presi- 
dent. It was a terrible responsibility to assume, but 
it seemed to me that we must go on and trust in God 
to protect us, as we had done at the time of the Bul- 

249 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

garian troubles. We were surprised at the number 
of students who appeared and at their assurance 
that the College was a safe place. The whole num- 
ber registered was 200, of whom 130 were boarders. 
There were 77 Greeks, 61 Armenians, 38 Bulgari- 
ans, 8 English and Americans, 9 Turks, 7 others, 
about the same number of boarders that we had the 
previous year. The head of our French Department 
was prevented from returning by the fears of his 
wife's family, but the newly engaged French tutor, 
Mr. Reymond, came and has ever since been at 
the head of the department. Mr. Pollock, a new 
American tutor, broke down in health in the 
middle of the year and returned to America. The 
rest of us survived the terrible strain of months of 
painful anxiety and sympathy with suffering which 
we were powerless to prevent and could do little to 
alleviate, but at the end of November my health 
broke down so completely that I was forced to spend 
three months in Egypt to recruit. As at other times, 
Dr. Long took up the burden, and I was not missed. 
On our return from Egypt Mrs. Washburn and I 
improved the opportunity to stop at Beirut, with our 
dear old friends of the Syrian Protestant College, 
and rejoice with them in their prosperity. We 
greatly enjoyed this visit and our stay in the new 
Egypt of Lord Cromer, the renewal of our acquaint- 
ance with the American missionaries there, and our 
study of ancient Egypt. We felt sometimes that we 
never wished to see the blood-stained streets of Con- 
stantinople again. 

We came back to new and unexpected troubles 
and greater anxieties than ever. War broke out with 

250 



THE GREAT CONSTANTINOPLE MASSACRE 

Greece, followed by an order for the expulsion of 
all Greek subjects from the empire, and the fanati- 
cism of the Turks was roused to a higher pitch 
than at the time of the massacres. Constantinople 
was like a powder magazine which might be 
exploded by a chance spark. Our students were 
intensely excited, all of them, and we felt that the 
dreaded spark might be kindled in the College at 
any moment. That it was not was due chiefly to 
the untiring efforts of the professors and tutors of 
the different nationalities to quiet and restrain the 
students. Five of the Greeks ran away to enlist in 
the Greek army, but the Turkish government was 
considerate enough not to molest our Greek stu- 
dents or servants. 

This war was an act of supreme folly on the part 
of the Greeks. The government was driven into it 
by popular clamor against its own judgment. It 
was hardly less a folly for the Turks. It is generally 
believed that the final decision to declare war was 
due to German influence, exercised chiefly through 
the distinguished German officers who had reor- 
ganized the Turkish army, and that the popular 
demonstrations here were not spontaneous. The 
Greeks had no army to meet the Turks, who would 
have been in Athens in a few days if the Powers had 
not intervened. The Turks had no fleet which they 
dared to send outside the Dardanelles, and in the 
end they lost Crete. The Greeks might have had 
an alliance with Bulgaria and been supported by an 
insurrection in Macedonia, but here also it was the 
mob which decided the government to reject this 
alliance. It was well for Bulgaria that they did. 

251 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

There was no reason why they should go to war with 
Turkey at that time. 

Our interest in the Greeks naturally led us to sym- 
pathize with them, but we could not sympathize 
with the spurious patriotism which had forced the 
government into war, and which has so often 
brought them into trouble. The Christian world 
owes so much to ancient Greece that it naturally in- 
terests itself in modern Greece and in every effort 
of the kingdom of Greece to improve its position. It 
welcomes every advance in the prosperity and en- 
lightenment of the nation; but sometimes its en- 
thusiasm is cooled by evidence that the same spirit 
of revolt against reason which ruined ancient Athens 
is still prevalent. The seventy-two Greeks in the 
College who did not run away and go to the war 
were not less patriotic and were much wiser than 
those who went. 

When the end of the year came and found us all 
alive, in relative peace and quiet, after the long 
months of terror, war, massacre, and the rage of 
the wildest passions about us, we felt like making 
our Commencement a day of thanksgiving; but 
the city was still full of misery and distress, and the 
political horizon still dark, so that we felt the need 
of unusual caution in arranging our programme. 
We gave special importance to the music and had 
one of the principal musicians of the palace to take 
a prominent part. Mr. Riddle, the American 
charge d'affaires, presided, the audience was as large 
as ever and everything passed off happily. 

The number of graduates was 14, of whom 13 
are living. Five were Bulgarians, 4 Armenians, 4 

252 



THE GREAT CONSTANTINOPLE MASSACRE 

Greeks, 1 a German from Russia. Of the Bulgarians 
1 was a teacher, 1 a judge, 2 in civil service, 1 died 
while studying medicine. Of the Armenians 2 are 
merchants, 1 an architect in New York, 1 a teacher 
in Robert College. Of the Greeks 2 are merchants, 
1 a lawyer in Roumania, 1 a physician. The Ger- 
man is in Russia. 



253 



CHAPTER XXIII 



FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE. 1897-1899 

The reorganized Board of Trustees did not dis- 
appoint us. When the reorganization took place 
it seemed almost too much to hope that a new day 
had really dawned upon us, that we were no longer 
to bear alone the burden which we had carried 
for so many years. The old Board was sympathetic, 
gave us its blessing and looked after our funds care- 
fully, but it was so constituted that it could do 
little more. I remember Dr. David B. Coe, Mr. W. 
A. Booth and Mr. William C. Sturges with grati- 
tude and affection. They were real friends of the 
College, and when I was in America they were al- 
ways ready to listen to me and do what they could. 
The fact that they were so well known and uni- 
versally respected was a guarantee of the standing 
of the College which I fully appreciated; but the 
new Board assumed a responsibility for the College 
which was an unspeakable relief to us. The Con- 
stitution was modified and the Board enlarged. At 
this time it consisted of Mr. John S. Kennedy, Presi- 
dent, Rev. Dr. E. B. Coe, Secretary, Mr. Frederick 
A. Booth, Treasurer, Mr. John Sloane, Mr. Robert 
W. De Forest and Mr. William C. Osborn. The 
Board not only listened to our wants and appre- 
ciated our needs, but undertook to supply them 
as far and as soon as possible. This could not be 

254 



FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE 

done in a day, but the work of enlarging and 
strengthening the College began in this period, 
and it has been going on ever since. They were 
undoubtedly encouraged by a happy event which 
occurred in the summer of 1898. We had long felt 
the pressing need of a new building for our Prepara- 
tory Department, which we could not dispense with, 
but which could not be managed satisfactorily 
while it was under the same roof with the College. 
I went to America that summer with the special pur- 
pose of trying to interest Miss Stokes of New York 
in this need. I hardly know why I had thought 
particularly of her, although she had visited Con- 
stantinople and interested herself in the education 
of two Bulgarian students here, but I was very 
hopeful. When I reached America, to my great 
disappointment I found that she was not in the 
country, and I came back with a heavy heart. 
When I reached Kennedy Lodge and met Mrs. 
Washburn her first words were that she had a 
letter for me that would interest me. It proved 
to be a letter from Miss Stokes in which she said 
that she had been thinking of the wants of the 
College and would be very glad to put up a build- 
ing for the Preparatory Department. I could 
hardly believe my eyes. It seemed to me almost 
like a miracle, and when the building was finished I 
sympathized most heartily with Miss Stokes' re- 
quest that it be called Theodorus Hall, the gift of 
God. The trustees were also encouraged by two 
legacies left to the College, — five thousand dollars 
by Mr. W. H. Stickney of Baltimore and ten thou- 
sand dollars by Mr. Charles F. Wilder of Boston, — 

255 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

and they made arrangements for the appointment 
of a Professor of Mathematics, which had long 
been a crying need of the College. 

For the thirty-fifth year, 1897-1898, the number 
of students registered was 250, of whom 145 were 
boarders. There were 88 Greeks, 87 Armenians, 49 
Bulgarians, 10 Turks, 7 English and Americans, 9 
others. 

For the thirty-sixth year, 1898-1899, the number 
registered was 292, of whom 173 were boarders. 
There were 108 Greeks, 105 Armenians, 45 Bul- 
garians, 10 English and Americans, 14 Turks, 10 
others. 

The increase of Greek and Armenian students 
after the massacres and the war was altogether un- 
expected, and we had to refuse a number of appli- 
cants in the fall of 1898. We could not accommodate 
more. 

One of the pleasantest experiences of this period 
was the coming here of President Angell of Michi- 
gan University as American minister, who was not 
only a college president, but a scholar and a states- 
man. He and Mrs. Angell were the most delightful 
of friends. We rejoiced in them and were proud of 
them as representatives of our country, which he 
had already represented in China. We were dis- 
appointed but not surprised that he found Michigan 
University more attractive than the Sublime Porte 
and resigned his place here after a year of fruitless 
negotiations, which, as he had been in China, had 
not even the interest of novelty. In fact he found 
that the Sublime Porte surpassed the Yamen in the 
style of diplomacy common to both. 

256 



FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE 

On his departure our old friend Mr. Straus re- 
turned to the post which he had occupied under 
President Cleveland, an appointment which was 
supposed to be agreeable to the Sultan. 

There was also a change in the British Embassy. 
Nearly all the ambassadors who had been here 
during the massacres were recalled and among 
them Sir Philip Currie, who was replaced by Sir 
Nicholas O' Conor, an experienced diplomatist, a 
kind-hearted and agreeable gentleman, who has 
been most friendly to the College, who has carried 
out his instructions to keep peace between England 
and the Porte, and who has given the Sultan end- 
less good advice which has seldom been followed. 
Since the massacres we have lived here through an 
era of German influence which seems now (1907) to 
be waning. It was in the autumn of 1898 that the 
Emperor William II made his pilgrimage to the 
Holy Land and visited Constantinople. It is be- 
lieved here that this visit cost the Sultan more than 
ten million dollars, and the Turks say that all he 
got in return was a marble bust of the Emperor and 
of his grandfather. He was not welcomed by the 
people here, either Turks or Christians, but he 
cemented an alliance with the Sultan which freed 
Turkey from all fear of the "Concert of Europe" 
and in return opened a wide field for German enter- 
prise in Turkey and for the development of German 
influence in Asia Minor. German influence here 
has been as strongly anti-American as it has been 
anti-English. 

In 1898, in the time of the Spanish War, we had 
all Europe, except England, against us and had to 

257 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 



listen to much that was unpleasant here in Con- 
stantinople, where in diplomatic circles it was uni- 
versally believed that we should be ignominiously 
defeated. Curiously enough the Turks were on our 
side, and rejoiced over the defeat of Spain as a 
divine punishment for her treatment of the Moors 
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was 
said that prayers were offered in our behalf in some 
of the mosques. 

I am tempted to quote here from a letter of one 
of the most distinguished statesmen in England, 
which I find among my papers, written in Sep- 
tember, 1898, apropos of the feeling in America. 
"The change of sentiment in regard to foreign 
possessions in the TJ. S. A. is not more sudden than 
surprising to us. Whatever benefit there may be in 
it for Britain, it seems to me full of trouble for Amer- 
ica. Your constitution and government were not 
framed for the sort of work which oceanic Powers 
ruling half-savage tropical dependencies have to do, 
but I see that good men in America believe that, be- 
cause it has come in the dispensation of Providence, 
Congress will be endowed with the necessary wis- 
dom for it and it will even lead to an improvement 
in political methods and public life. England, as 
you will see, views it with sympathy." 

For ourselves, we regretted the war, but we re- 
joiced in its victories and hoped, as this gentleman 
says, that Congress might be endowed with wisdom 
to manage our new possessions. We are still hoping. 
But our Congress is not, thus far, made up of men 
whose knowledge or interests fit them to legislate for 
a world-power such as we have become. They 

258 



FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE 



are chiefly local politicians with little interest in the 
welfare of the country as a whole, and ignorant of 
foreign politics. There is no choice for any nation 
now but to be a world-power knowing how to de- 
fend its own interests, or to be dominated by the 
Great Powers of Europe and exploited in their 
interests. In 1896 we could not send a gunboat to 
Constantinople to protect the lives of American 
citizens because Russia and Germany did not wish 
it. Our trade with Turkey has been limited for 
years in the same way. From the standpoint of 
Constantinople it seems that the great need of 
America is more international statesmen. 

To go back to the College, it was in 1897 that we 
had our first public field day for athletics. An ath- 
letic club had been organized the previous year by 
Mr. Ostrander, then a tutor in the College. We had 
never ignored our responsibility for the physical 
culture of our students. As far as our means al- 
lowed we had provided gymnastic apparatus, and 
had exercised our students in some system of light 
gymnastics ; but our chief dependence had been in 
encouraging all sorts of out-of-door games — cricket, 
baseball, football, etc. The Athletic Club had 
rather a precarious existence for several years, but 
it has grown stronger every year, and its annual field 
days have attracted much attention in the city and 
developed the interest of the students in athletics. 
Some of our students have distinguished themselves 
by breaking world records and winning interna- 
tional prizes. For myself I rejoice that the interest 
in athletics has not yet reached a point where it over- 
shadows the proper work of the College, and I hope 

259 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

that it never will. I believe that systematic work in 
the gymnasium is a far more important means of 
cultivating the physical powers, and that out-of-door 
games, if not confined to a chosen few, are equally 
important. Our games have never degenerated 
into gladiatorial shows. We have sometimes been 
troubled by international rivalries in athletics, but 
our own neutral position has generally enabled us 
to restore harmony, and on the whole the conduct of 
our students in these contests has been praise- 
worthy. 

Our chief source of anxiety in 1898-1899 was in re- 
gard to our water supply. We talked about it every 
day and dreamed about it every night. At times we 
had not a two days' supply in sight simply for cook- 
ing and drinking. We had a well one hundred and 
eighty feet below the College which furnished water 
for other purposes, but one horse pumped this dry 
every morning in two hours. We had several large 
cisterns and had always depended upon rain-water 
caught on our roofs for our supply. We had been in 
trouble before, but this year, with a greater number 
of students than ever before, we had to face a 
drought which had continued for two or three years 
with an annual rainfall of only twelve to fifteen inches. 
The first part of the year we sent our students to 
the Turkish bath in Hissar, but in the early spring 
this burned down. Then the well threatened to 
give out, and we saw the bottom of our cisterns. I 
arranged to have water brought on horses, in barrels, 
from a spring two miles away. The evening before 
this water was to begin to come a storm came down 
from the Black Sea with a deluge of rain, and that 

260 



FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE 

was the end of the drought. But this was an ex- 
perience which it was not safe to repeat, and Mr. 
Kennedy came to our rescue and furnished the 
means to put in a steam pump and connect us with 
the city water supply in a building which we erected 
for this purpose. Our supply is now unlimited, but 
we still depend on our cisterns for drinking and 
cooking purposes. 

Professor Anderson's health broke down in 1898 
under the strain of life in Hamlin Hall, where he had 
lived with his family since a similar experience had 
forced me to withdraw to Kennedy Lodge. Since 
that time no family has lived in Hamlin Hall. The 
family rooms are now used as the college hospital 
and Miss Hart's apartments. There are also twelve 
teachers living in the building. The president's 
house is only a stone's throw from Hamlin Hall. 
After a year's absence, Professor Anderson returned 
to the College. 

Mr. Hagopian returned to the College in Novem- 
ber, 1898, and like other Armenians returning to 
the city, although his papers were in perfect order, 
he spent twenty-four hours in the city prison, when 
by our intervention he was set at liberty. The neg- 
lect of a friend of his in London to post a letter to 
me prevented our meeting him on his arrival. If I 
had known of his coming on that day, I could have 
saved him this trying experience, through the inter- 
vention of the American consul. 

In March, 1899, Lord Rosebery came to Con- 
stantinople, and Mrs. Washburn and I lunched with 
him at the British Embassy. I had never met him 
before, although when he was Foreign Minister I 

261 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

was in correspondence with him. I had a long talk 
with him on Eastern affairs and English policy. I 
found him quite as interesting a man as Lord Salis- 
bury, though of a different type, and less inclined to 
express decided opinions. He related to me one or 
two most interesting incidents of his experience 
when Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

The number of graduates in 1898 was 14. There 
were 6 Bulgarians, 4 Greeks, 2 Armenians, 1 Eng- 
lish, 1 Italian. Of the Bulgarians 2 are in busi- 
ness, 1 a judge, 1 a lawyer, 1 a teacher, 1 in diplo- 
matic service. Of the Greeks 2 are in business, 
1 a lawyer, 1 an engineer. Of the Armenians 1 is 
a mining engineer in Mexico, 1 a physician in 
America. The Englishman is a merchant; the 
Italian, unknown. 

The number of graduates in 1899 was 13. There 
were 5 Greeks, 4 Armenians, 3 Bulgarians, 1 He- 
brew. Of the Greeks 2 are in business, 2 have 
studied medicine and 1 is in the treasurer's office 
in Robert College. Of the Armenians 3 are in 
business, 1 has studied law in America. Of the 
Bulgarians 2 have studied law, 1 is in diplo- 
matic service. The Hebrew is an assistant in the 
physico-chemical laboratory of the University of 
Leipsic. 

We had our usual crowded and distinguished au- 
dience on both the Commencement days, and an 
admirable address from Mr. Straus, who presided 
in 1899. The subjects treated by the graduates in 
their orations were the following: The Russian 
Woman, The Temptations of Poverty, The Social 
Problem, Life a Conflict, The East and the West, 



FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE 



The Value of Self-reliance, La Dette de l'Occident, 
La Puissance de la Volonte, Les Progres des Sciences 
et la Misere Sociale. 

I suppose that few foreigners have had a better 
opportunity to acquaint themselves with the people 
of Asia Minor than Sir William Ramsay, and I quote 
here what he says in his "Impressions of Turkey" 
of our graduates: "I have come in contact with 
men educated in Robert College, in widely separated 
parts of the country, men of diverse races and differ- 
ent forms of religion, Greek, Armenian and Protes- 
tant, and have everywhere been struck with the mar- 
velous way in which a certain uniform type, direct, 
simple, honest and lofty in tone, has been impressed 
upon them. Some had more of it, some less ; but all 
had it to a certain degree; and it is diametrically 
opposite to the type produced by growth under the 
ordinary conditions of Turkish life." 



263 



CHAPTER XXIV 



DEATH OF DR. HAMLIN. 1899-1901 

There was nothing in the history of the College 
in Constantinople the thirty-seventh year which de- 
mands special attention. Everything was quiet and 
peaceful in the city. The Sultan completed the 
twenty-fifth year of his reign and the six hundredth 
of the Ottoman dynasty, and all Europe united to 
congratulate him. 

The prosperity of the College continued un- 
abated. The number of students registered was 
297, of whom 176 were boarders. One hundred and 
twelve were Greeks, 108 Armenians, 39 Bulgarians, 
14 Turks, 13 English and Americans, 11 others. 

For the thirty-eighth year the number of students 
registered was 311, of whom 182 were boarders. 
One hundred and twenty-seven were Greeks, 108 
Armenians, 34 Bulgarians, 14 Turks, 12 English and 
American, 16 others. 

The number of students for these two years repre- 
sented the extreme limit to which it was possible for 
for us to go in receiving students. We were over- 
crowded in the buildings which we had at that time. 

In the spring of 1900 the trustees of the College 
requested me to go to America and consult with 
them as to what measures should be taken to meet 
the immediate needs of the College and secure its 
future development. This was the most important 



DEATH OF DR. HAMLIN 

step ever taken by the trustees and was the begin- 
ning of the development which is still in progress. 
It was a recognition of responsibility on their part 
which the Faculty welcomed with enthusiasm and 
new hopes for the future. At their suggestion I 
started in season to attend the Ecumenical Mission- 
ary Conference, which was held in New York that 
year, where it was thought advisable to have Robert 
College represented. The importance of the College 
and its world-wide influence were fully recognized. 
I presided at one of the great meetings in Carnegie 
Hall and spoke on different occasions, and had 
many opportunities for consultation with those en- 
gaged in similar work in other parts of the world, 
most of whom realized that it was the founding and 
the success of Robert College which had changed 
the policy of American missionary societies and led 
to the establishment of colleges in so many mission- 
ary fields. I found these personal conferences very 
profitable, and greatly enjoyed meeting so many 
great and good men of various nationalities from all 
parts of the world. It was natural to compare this 
meeting with the Parliament of Religions at Chicago, 
in which I had taken a prominent part, and I did so 
in the brief address which I made at the last meeting. 
They were not antagonistic in spirit or purpose, but 
the more definite aim of the practical workers of the 
Missionary Conference was certainly more inspiring 
and seemed to promise more immediate results. 

Soon after the Conference the trustees met in- 
formally at dinner at Mr. Kennedy's, where I had 
an opportunity to present to them the views of the 
Faculty as to the present conditions — the needs 

265 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

and the prospects of the College. What was gener- 
ally agreed to there was afterwards adopted at a 
formal meeting of the Board. They resolved to 
carry out as far as possible the recommendations 
submitted by the Faculty. They resolved "to do 
everything that was necessary for the development 
of the College on the model of the best colleges in 
America, to make it thoroughly up to date in its 
material equipment and in its curriculum, personnel 
and spirit." Professor Lybyer had already been 
appointed professor of mathematics; and it was 
agreed to appoint, in addition, a principal of the 
Preparatory Department, a professor in the Scientific 
Department who should also be a physician, and a 
college treasurer who should also be a professor in 
the Commercial Department. It was also decided to 
erect a new building for study halls and recitation 
rooms, a gymnasium and three houses for professors, 
to supply new chemical and physical apparatus, and 
to increase the library, also to purchase adjacent 
land. As all this would increase the running ex- 
pense of the College, it was resolved to take imme- 
diate steps to raise two hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars to increase the endowment. A building for 
the Preparatory Department had already been pro- 
vided for by Miss Stokes, and Mr. Cleveland H. 
Dodge, at the meeting, promised to put up a gym- 
nasium. Mr. Kennedy promised to put up the pro- 
fessors' houses. 

It should be noted that this action of the trustees 
was not the result of any special appeal made by us, 
but was the result of their own investigations and of 
their own purpose to make the College worthy of 

266 



DEATH OF DR. HAMLIN 

the position which it occupied in the East, and the 
reputation which it had attained in the world. No 
one, outside the Faculty, can fully appreciate what 
this meant to us who were on the ground, who knew 
what the College had done and might do, who had 
had a part in all its trials and triumphs. 

This was not the only evidence which we had of 
the interest which was taken in the College in edu- 
cational circles in America. I received most cordial 
invitations to visit colleges and universities. Prince- 
ton and Michigan Universities, Amherst College, 
and later the University of Pennsylvania, honored 
Robert College by conferring on its president the 
degree of Doctor of Laws. I took special pleasure 
in my visit to President Angell of Michigan Uni- 
versity, who had so greatly endeared himself to us 
when he was United States minister here, and to 
Williams College, whose president had long been a 
faithful friend of ours and had done no little work in 
finding tutors for us, and to Amherst, my own Alma 
Mater. 

In August we arranged for a gathering at my 
son's summer home at Manchester-by-the-Sea of all 
who could be got together of the Hamlin family. 
Dr. Hamlin, then nearly ninety years old, was there 
in good spirits and apparently good health. He was 
much pleased to hear of what the trustees had done 
and promised to do for Robert College and rejoiced 
in its present prosperity. The next morning, August 
8, he went with Mrs. Hamlin to Portland to assist 
in the celebration of "Home Week" there. That 
evening, on his return from a public meeting, where 
he had spoken, he complained of feeling ill and soon 

267 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

died. His funeral took place at Lexington, near 
Boston, which had been his home for some years. 
His body was carried to the grave by Armenian 
friends^ who afterward erected a monument over it, 
in memory of what he had done for the Armenian 
people in Turkey. After our return to Constan- 
tinople and the opening of the College we had a 
memorial service for him in the college hall, con- 
ducted by Dr. Long, with most interesting and ap- 
preciative addresses. There was a large audience 
of his old friends and of the college students. It 
was twenty-seven years since he had been in Turkey, 
but his memory was fresh in the minds of those who 
had known him. No one who had been a student 
under him in the Bebec Seminary or Robert College 
could possibly forget him, and the tradition of him 
still lingers in the city among those who had not 
known him personally. His name, attached to Ham- 
lin Hall, is familiar to all our students, and his por- 
trait hangs in the college chapel. Of his work as 
one of the founders of the College I have written in 
the earlier chapters of this book. Those who would 
know him as a man should read his autobiography, 
"My Life and Times." It was an interesting fact 
that, though Dr. Hamlin was a typical New Eng- 
lander, he, like Mr. Robert, was of French Hugue- 
not stock. 

On our return to Constantinople we stopped for 
a few days in Paris as the guests of Mr. Dimitroff, 
who was the Bulgarian Commissioner at the Paris 
Exposition. For us who had known Bulgaria as a 
Turkish province, chiefly inhabited by peasants 
who were practically serfs, a country with no sign or 

268 



DEATH OF DR. HAMLIN 

promise of modern progress, the Bulgarian exhibit 
was the most wonderful thing that we saw. It com- 
pared favorably with the exhibits of the smaller 
states, even in the department of art, and showed 
that the progress of the country in twenty years of 
freedom had been unexampled. We could not but 
feel that something of this progress was due to Rob- 
ert College. 

The Commencement exercises in 1900 were un- 
usual. The plague had broken out in Egypt, and it 
was believed that cases had occurred in Constanti- 
nople. We were in daily expectation that we should 
be shut in by quarantines, which would make it 
very difficult for our students to reach their homes. 
We closed the College a week earlier than usual and 
excused the Seniors from delivering orations. Pro- 
fessor van Millingen and Mr. Lloyd C. Griscom, 
the American charge d'affaires, made addresses 
which were highly appreciated by a crowded and 
distinguished audience. Mr. Griscom represented 
the United States here as charge d'affaires for about 
a year, and won golden opinions, not only from all 
Americans, but from the representatives of foreign 
Powers, and was specially honored by the Sultan. It 
was he who finally arranged for a settlement of 
American claims for indemnity for losses during the 
massacres. We do not wonder at the successive 
and rapid promotions which have made him Amer- 
ican ambassador at Rome. He was followed here by 
Mr. John G. A. Leishman, who was raised to the 
rank of ambassador in 1906 and still holds this po- 
sition. 

One of the curious incidents of the thirty-seventh 

269 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

year was the arrest of one of our Greek students and 
his imprisonment for two months in the common 
prison along with those charged with being incen- 
diaries, burglars and murderers. The only charge 
against him was that when he arrived by steamer 
in Constantinople he had in his pocket a patriotic 
Greek song, with music, which could be bought in 
any music store in Pera. We begged the Minister 
of Police not to imprison him on such a charge, and 
he sent him to the College; but some of the officials 
knew that his father was rich, and after some weeks 
made a formal charge against him of bringing in- 
cendiary documents into the country, the penalty 
of which is three years' imprisonment. His father 
had to come and bargain with the judges to acquit 
him when he was tried. The trial was really a farce, 
but it cost the father a round sum. Mrs. Wash- 
burn and Miss Hart went to see him several times 
in prison and became so much interested in the piti- 
ful condition of the prisoners that on our Thanks- 
giving Day, with the consent of the officials, they 
gave them a good Thanksgiving dinner. This was 
after the release of our student. 

The thirty-eighth college year, 1900-1901, was one 
of continued prosperity in the number of our stu- 
dents and the work done by them. We had one 
addition to our Faculty, Mr. Lybyer, who came to 
take charge of the Mathematical Department. The 
one cloud that rested upon the College was the fail- 
ing health of Dr. Long, and it was arranged that he 
should take a year's vacation in America with full 
salary. In the spring of 1901 we had the pleasure of 
a visit from the president of the Board of Trustees with 

270 



DEATH OF DR. HAMLIN 



Mrs. Kennedy. Nothing could have been more 
grateful to us or more profitable for the College, 
and I am sure that Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy not only 
enjoyed their visit and appreciated the unsurpassed 
beauty of the site of Kennedy Lodge, but carried 
away with them a stronger impression of the impor- 
tance and worth of the College, as well as its needs. 

The work on the new building for the Prepara- 
tory Department was begun in the autumn of 1900, 
although, through the rascality or enmity of some 
officials at the palace, the trade which was issued 
had been lost, and the new one obtained after much 
delay was so ambiguous as to be worthless. None 
of the accredited authorities of the Porte or the city 
dared to take the responsibility of giving us permis- 
sion to go on, but they were all friendly and had no 
desire to stop the work, and we went on unmolested. 
After the building was finished we got the proper 
official irade to erect it. We also commenced the 
improvements in Hamlin Hall and bought in Paris 
and Vienna more than a thousand dollars' worth of 
physical apparatus. The most remarkable event of 
the year was the completion of the sewer from the 
college grounds to the Bosphorus, after thirty years 
of negotiation with the Turkish authorities, which 
enabled us, for the first time, to complete our sani- 
tary arrangements on scientific principles. This 
also was accomplished through our friendly rela- 
tions with the local officials, and the work was thor- 
oughly done, not only to our advantage, but equally 
to that of our Turkish neighbors, as we built up and 
covered in what had been an open sewer through 
the old castle to the sea. 

271 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

The most interesting events at the Commence- 
ment in 1901 were the gathering of the alumni and 
a letter received from the Greek Patriarch. For the 
first time we had an alumni dinner, at which more 
than sixty were present, a large number considering 
that our alumni are scattered over the world and 
that the obstacles put in the way of travel prevent 
those from abroad coming to Constantinople. Two 
of our most distinguished alumni had died during 
the year, both of the class of 1871. Mr. Slaveikoff 
was Minister of Public Instruction in Bulgaria at 
the time of his death. Mr. Stoiloff had been inti- 
mately connected with the whole history of the prin- 
cipality, was the most widely known of Bulgarians, 
had held the highest offices of state, was a patriot 
and an honest man. 

We had no speeches at our Commencement, and 
the next day I received the following letter, which 
was also published in the official organ of the 
church by the Patriarch : — 

to the most noble and most learned 
Director of Robert College. 

Most Noble Sir : The following is an address 
which his Holiness directed me to deliver yesterday 
on my visit to your College, which I now have the 
pleasure to transmit to you. 

"Having come among you, Honorable (gentle- 
men, by order of his Holiness, my most venerable 
Master, it gives me great pleasure to say that his 
Holiness has always followed with great interest 
the work of your most important and most noble 

272 



DEATH OF DR. HAMLIN 



institution. His Holiness duly appreciates your 
labors and cares that the education which you give 
shall make good citizens and moral men, who will 
act in society as worthy and honest members of it, 
loving their neighbors, not rendering evil for evil, 
but good for evil. 

"But the appreciation of his Holiness surpasses 
this limit, for he admires and praises you for working 
in harmony with the teaching of the Apostle ; doing 
good without any afterthought, which might bring 
forth scandals, you respect the teaching of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who said, ' Woe unto him through 
whom scandal comes.' Your enviable mission, as 
is proved by facts, is the mission of making good 
men, not of corrupting consciences : to make good 
Christians, not perverts from the church. For these 
reasons his Holiness gave me the fatherly order to 
express to you his thanks and praise for your work, 
inasmuch as our nation on account of unhappy 
circumstances has not been able to found such an 
institution as Robert College." Transmitting to you 
word by word this fatherly message of his Holiness, 
I take the opportunity to sign myself, with great 
respect and brotherly love for you, 

The Grand Vicar Chrysostome. 

There were 18 graduates in 1900, of whom 8 
were Armenians, 5 Greeks, 3 English, 2 Bulga- 
rians. Of the Armenians 7 are in business, 1 a civil 
engineer. Of the Greeks 3 are in business, 1 an 
engineer, 1 a teacher in Robert College. Of the 
English 1 is a teacher, 2 are in business. The 
two Bulgarians are lawyers. 

273 



FIFTY YEARS [IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

There were 11 graduates in 1901. Five were 
Greeks, 4 were Bulgarians, 1 was Armenian, 1 was 
French. The Greeks are all in business. Of the 
Bulgarians 2 are in business, 1 is a lawyer, 1 a 
librarian. The Frenchman is in business in Central 
Asia. The Armenian is in business. 



274 



CHAPTER XXV 



NEW PROFESSORS AND NEW BUILDINGS. 1901-1902 

These recollections of Robert College I am writ- 
ing in what was, for many years, Dr. Long's study, in 
the college house in Roumeli Hissar, and I feel it 
to be a more sacred place than any other about the 
College. He left us with his family in June, 1901, 
for a year of rest in America. He had been failing 
in health for several months, but his physician be- 
lieved that a sea voyage would revive him. We took 
him in a chair down to the landing stage, where the 
people of the quarter gathered to give him their 
parting blessing. The American minister had sent 
his steam launch to convey him to the steamship 
which was to take him to Liverpool. It was a sad 
parting on the deck of the steamer, and our worst 
fears were realized. He reached Liverpool only to 
die there in a hospital July 28, 1901, and there he is 
buried. He had been a professor in the College for 
twenty-nine years and acting president whenever I 
was absent, twice for two years at a time when I 
was in America raising money. He was born in 
December, 1832, graduated at Alleghany College, 
taught two years and came to Turkey as a mission- 
ary of the Methodist Episcopal Church to the Bul- 
garians. It was through his influence that the first 
Bulgarian students came to Robert College, and no 
foreigner has ever been more trusted and beloved 

275 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

by the Bulgarian people than he. He came to Con- 
stantinople to join Dr. Riggs in the revision of the 
Bulgarian Bible, and when this work was done he 
was persuaded to accept a professorship in Robert 
College. No man ever had a wiser, more loyal and 
loving associate than I found in him, and much of 
the reputation of the College as a seat of learning 
was due to his broad scholarship. His religious 
influence was that of a man filled with the spirit 
of Christ. Even his Mohammedan neighbors re- 
garded him as a holy man. Robert College was 
never the same to me after he left it. Mrs. Long 
died, in December, 1901, at Enfield, N. H., a few 
months after her return to America, leaving two 
daughters who still reside in that town. 

The number of students registered the thirty- 
ninth year was 308, of whom 181 were boarders. 
There were 131 Greeks, 98 Armenians, 29 Bulga- 
rians, 15 Turks, 14 English and Americans, 21 
others of 11 different races. 

So far as the College was concerned, the year in 
Constantinople was a quiet and peaceful one, al- 
though if we had chosen to interest ourselves in 
political affairs we might have occupied ourselves 
with much that was exciting and much that was 
trying to the people of the country. German in- 
fluence was dominant at the palace and the reign of 
the Camarilla unchanged. The Armenians were 
suffering from all sorts of oppressions and the Turks 
still more from the terrible system of espionage 
which left them no peace or sense of security day or 
night. The storm centre was in Macedonia, and 
incidentally it became a matter of interest to us and 

276 



NEW PROFESSORS AND NEW BUILDINGS 

to all Americans, through the capture of Miss Stone, 
an American missionary, by a band of revolution- 
ists. The treaty of Berlin, Art, 23, had provided 
for a reformed government in Macedonia; but 
nothing had been done to carry this decision into 
execution, and the condition of the Christian popu- 
lation was worse than ever. Large numbers of the 
young men had fled into Bulgaria, and a revolution- 
ary organization had been formed there. A similar 
organization on a vast scale was formed in Mace- 
donia, with its headquarters at Salonica. The in- 
surrection broke out in 1901, and Miss Stone was 
captured in Macedonia by a band connected with 
this organization in the autumn of this year, when 
traveling on what was supposed to be a perfectly 
safe road and not far from a Turkish guard house. 
She was held for ransom. This is not the place to 
enter into the details of this unfortunate affair or to 
criticise the management of it. I believe that it is 
universally acknowledged that it was sadly mis- 
managed up to the time that Mr. Gargiulo, Mr. 
Peet and Mr. House went to Macedonia in Decem- 
ber and finally secured her release in February, 1902. 
It was not until things had come to a deadlock in 
December that it was possible for me to do anything. 
I then went privately to Sofia, saw the Bulgarian 
ministers, four of whom happened to be graduates 
of the College, and the military officers who knew 
what was going on along the frontier, also graduates, 
and the chief of the revolutionary committee, who 
had never been in Robert College, but whom I 
found to be an educated gentleman who had studied 
in Paris. I saw others also and satisfied myself as to 

277 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

what needed to be done. I returned to Constanti- 
nople, made my report, which was telegraphed to 
Washington, and my recommendations were carried 
out. It is my belief that she might have been set at 
liberty within a few days after her capture and for a 
small sum of money if the affair had been settled 
quietly at the outset. But whatever mistakes may 
have been made here, it was the American news- 
papers and the public there which was chiefly re- 
sponsible for the long delay and the large sum paid 
for her ransom. The telegraph kept the revolution- 
ists informed every day of what was going on in 
America and of the sums raised for her ransom. 
No finer work has ever been done in Turkey than 
that of Mr. Gargiulo, the first dragoman of the Le- 
gation, and his associates, in securing her release, 
in the midst of difficulties which seemed to be in- 
surmountable. The brigands got the money contrib- 
uted in America, and it is generally believed that it 
went to pay for the arms which were used against 
the Turks the following summer. 

The college year had hardly opened when we 
were shocked by the news of the assassination of 
President McKinley at Buffalo. At the request of 
Mr. Leishman a public service was held in the col- 
lege chapel on the day of his funeral, which was at- 
tended by all the American officials, by the staff of 
the French Embassy and the American colony. A 
formal service had been held in the morning of the 
same day in the chapel of the British Embassy at 
Therapia. This was the third time since the found- 
ing of Robert College that we had been called to 
mourn the death of a President of the United States 

278 



NEW PROFESSORS AND NEW BUILDINGS 

by assassination. What could we say to our stu- 
dents in view of such crimes, we who had come out 
here professing to represent a higher Christian 
civilization and the blessings of a free government — 
a government of the people by the people ? We told 
them that the people repudiated and condemned 
these crimes, that they did not disturb the stability 
of the government, that they were the work of indi- 
viduals such as were to be found in every country ; 
but in our hearts we knew that the principles which 
we represent here had been dishonored in the 
minds of the people of this country and our influence 
in some measure diminished. These great crimes 
have confirmed the belief of Europeans in the pic- 
ture of American society, which they get from their 
newspapers, which represents us as worshipers of 
the almighty dollar, given over to lawlessness and 
regardless of human life, with little real respect for 
God or man. They make this impression, not by 
inventions of their own, but by quotations from New 
York newspapers. Robert College is a standing 
protest against this conception of our country, and 
we defend its honor as best we can, without conceal- 
ing the fact that the conflict between good and evil 
is as fierce there as in other parts of the world. 

We sometimes have visitors at the College from 
America who impress on our students the idea that 
America is after all a Christian state founded on 
the same principles which we are inculcating upon 
them. Such a company visited us one Sunday in 
March, 1902, two hundred and fifty of them, and we 
had three admirable addresses from Dr. Josiah 
Strong of New York, Dr. Barton of Chicago and 

279 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

Dr. Foote of Brooklyn, in place of our usual Sunday 
service. In general the crowds who come in excur- 
sion steamers every spring have but a day or two 
in Constantinople and find the bazaars more inter- 
esting than the College, although we exchange 
friendly salutes when they pass up the Bosphorus, 
and the evening of their arrival they often hear 
an address from Professor van Millingen, on Con- 
stantinople. 

The year 1901-1902 was a very important one in 
the internal development of the College. The 
professorship of mathematics had already been 
filled by the appointment of Professor Lybyer. At 
the beginning of this year three additional professors 
were added to the Faculty, Professor William S. 
Murray as principal of the Preparatory Department, 
Dr. Charles W. Ottley as resident physician and Pro- 
fessor of Biology, Professor George S. Murray as 
treasurer and to take charge of the commercial 
studies. Before the close of the year Professor George 
L. Manning, Ph. D., was appointed Professor of 
Physics, and Rev. C. F. Gates, D. D., LL. D., was 
appointed Vice-President, with the understanding 
that he should come to the College after a year and 
take my place whenever I might resign, as I had in- 
formed the trustees that I should at the end of the 
year, after I had reached the age of seventy. 

In making these appointments the trustees were 
simply carrying out their purpose "to make the 
College thoroughly up to date in its material equip- 
ment, in its curriculum, personnel and spirit," a 
model college, not necessarily exactly like an Amer- 
ican college, but adapted to its environment. It is 

280 



NEW PROFESSORS AND NEW BUILDINGS 

needless to add that Professor van Millingen and I, 
the old stagers, looked upon this as the realization of 
the hopes which we had cherished through long years 
of effort to make the most of such means as we had, 
to keep the lead in the educational development of 
this part of the world. The other members of the 
Faculty — American and native — welcomed the 
dawn of the new day with equal enthusiasm, and 
our alumni were encouraged to believe that they 
would never have reason to be ashamed of their 
Alma Mater. 

We were equally fortunate in finding men for our 
Turkish and German departments, for which we had 
never before been able to provide in a manner satis- 
factory to us or to our students. Tevfik Fikret Bey, 
who has since been at the head of the Turkish De- 
partment, is a man of high character and one of the 
most distinguished scholars in Constantinople, of 
whom we can be proud as an associate. 

We were indebted to the Moravian Brethren at 
Herrnhut in Saxony for a German teacher who is 
in hearty sympathy with the spirit of the College, 
Mr. Friedrich W. Kunick, the first satisfactory 
German teacher that we have ever found. I once 
wrote to a professor in the Berlin University to find 
a man for us, explaining to him what sort of a man 
we wanted ; and he replied that there was a great de- 
mand for just such men in Germany, but that the 
supply was very small. 

Our whole staff of teachers at this time, thirty- 
five in all including the professors, was worthy of 
the high ideal which the trustees had in view for the 
College, many of them among the most promising 

281 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

graduates of the College, representing many nation- 
alities but working together in harmony and mutual 
goodwill. 

Theodorus Hall was ready for occupation at the 
close of the year, and we had also applied to the 
Government for permission to erect a new study 
hall, a gymnasium and three houses for professors. 
We had also completed the purchase of about seven 
acres of land just beyond the campus, for which 
Mr. Kennedy had furnished the money when he 
was here. Theodorus Hall was paid for, and Mr. 
Dodge had promised to build the gymnasium, but 
where the money was to come from for our greatly 
increased current expenses and the proposed build- 
ings we did not know; but the responsibility for the 
steps taken in advance had been assumed by the 
trustees, and it cost me no more anxious days and 
wakeful nights such as I had known in former 
years. 

Much time was given during the year to a care- 
ful revision of the course of study in both the Colle- 
giate and the Preparatory departments. One year 
was added to the preparatory course, and in the 
Collegiate Department we arranged for a division 
of the course from the beginning of the Sophomore 
year — one division leading up to the degree of A.B. 
and the other to that of S.B., with a certain number 
of electives in each. Except in the matter of com- 
mercial studies, which may be chosen, there was no 
departure from the general principles which had 
guided us in former years, but we were able to give 
new importance to physical culture and to such 
studies as physics and biology. We introduced no 

282 



NEW PROFESSORS AND NEW BUILDINGS 

university methods, but we did what we could to 
adopt modern methods of study in the sciences. 
The buildings which have been erected since have 
enabled us to make still further progress in this 
direction. We did not in any way relax our efforts 
to make this a Christian college and to develop the 
Christian character of our students. We believe 
that the primary object of college education is dis- 
ciplinary — the forming of character, the educa- 
tion of the moral powers, the heart and will, and this 
in the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ and in accord- 
ance with His teaching, the development of true 
manhood. We put this first, while we would neglect 
nothing in the way of essential physical and intellec- 
tual culture to make not only good men, but strong 
men. 

The class which graduated in 1902 numbered 13, 
of whom 6 were Armenians, 4 Greeks, 2 Bulgarians 
and 1 Austrian. Of the Armenians 4 are in busi- 
ness, 1 a teacher, 1 in journalism. Of the Greeks 
3 are in business and 1 a teacher. The Austrian 
is in business. The Bulgarians both continued 
their studies. 



283 



CHAPTER XXVI 



MY RESIGNATION OF THE PRESIDENCY. 1902-1903 

I spent the summer vacation of 1902 in America, 
and, at his request, I went to Washington to see 
President Roosevelt. I had met him many years 
before, at a club in Boston, when he was interested 
in the reform of the government of New York City, 
and consequently had formed some idea of him as a 
young man. I went to see my old friend Secretary 
Hay first, to talk over Turkish affairs with him, and 
he arranged my interview with the President. 
When I reached the White House I found about 
fifty people in the reception room waiting to see 
him — Senators, Representatives and petitioners for 
all sorts of favors — together with some who seemed 
to have come as they would have to a zoological 
garden to see the elephant. The scene was not new 
to me, but I was more than ever impressed with the 
absurdity of it. It seemed to be a relic of the old 
idea that the Caliph should sit in the door of his 
house or tent every day and personally deal with 
every case that any one chose to present to him. 
Even the Sultan has given up this, although the 
shadow of it remains in the Friday Salaamlik. In 
America it is a traditional symbol of a republi- 
can form of government; but it is not an evidence 
of republican good sense to make such demands 
upon the time and strength of the President. On 

284 



MY RESIGNATION OF THE PRESIDENCY 

this occasion President Roosevelt appeared sud- 
denly in the room and disposed of the whole crowd 
in less than half an hour, listening and speaking to 
each one in a voice loud enough to be heard by all. 
After this I had a long talk with him in his private 
office on our relations with the Turkish government. 
He talked with a freedom which astonished me at 
first, but it was soon clear enough that I was ex- 
pected to distinguish between what he said as 
Theodore Roosevelt and what he said as Presi- 
dent of the United States, and that he took it for 
granted that what he said would not be made public 
by me. It was four years later when I saw him 
again and afterward lunched with him at the White 
House, with much the same experience. Theo- 
dore Roosevelt is certainly one of the most interest- 
ing men whom I have ever met; and President 
Roosevelt, from my point of view, which is European, 
is one of the greatest statesmen in the world. I 
know of no statesman in Europe who ranks above 
him. 

The college year opened in September, and the 
number of students registered was 318, of whom 
190 were boarders. There were 145 Greeks, 101 
Armenians, 28 Bulgarians, 9 English and Ameri- 
cans, 17 Turks, 18 others. 

The relations of our government with Turkey 
were strained at this time on account of concessions 
made to the French government as a result of its 
naval demonstration and occupation of the island of 
Mytilene. These concessions granted certain privi- 
leges to schools, hospitals and other institutions 
under Turkish protection which were denied to 

285 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

Americans, although, after having been granted to 
the French, they had been extended to English, 
German and Russian institutions, by special irades. 
It was our right to enjoy the same privileges. The 
Turkish government did not deny this, but would 
not issue the irade necessary to enable us to profit 
by the right as they had done for the other Powers. 
Mr. Leishman pressed this question as vigorously 
as he could, but it was not finally settled until 1907. 
Robert College was not directly interested in it, as 
our position was established by our original charter 
given by Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz; but the prestige of 
the United States in Turkey was at stake, and most 
of the American institutions, including the Beirut 
College, were directly interested in securing these 
rights. It was not a question to go to war about, 
and there were occult influences at the palace, 
probably of foreign origin, which led the Sultan to 
resist all Mr. Leishman's demands, until the tables 
were turned and he had something to ask of the 
United States. Great credit is due to Mr. Leishman 
for the skill with which he took advantage of this 
opportunity, not only to settle this question, but to 
establish our position here as entitled to the same 
rights as the European Powers. The year 1903 
was marked by the outbreak of the revolution 
planned by the Macedonian committee, not only in 
Macedonia, but in the province of Adrianople. The 
insurgents were Macedonian Bulgarians, but were 
not supported by the government of free Bulgaria, 
or by any European Power, and they failed, al- 
though they demanded nothing more than the 
execution of the treaty of Berlin. Russia and Aus- 

286 



MY RESIGNATION OF THE PRESIDENCY 

tria intervened, but neither of the Powers wished to 
have the Macedonian question settled until they 
could settle it in their own interest. They inter- 
vened to maintain the status quo. This is not the 
place to tell the story of the horrors of that year or 
those that have followed, or to discuss the Mace- 
donian question. It need only be said here that one 
result of the troubles there has been to stir up a 
bitter enmity between the Greeks and Bulgarians, 
not only in Macedonia, where their bands have 
rivaled the Turks in barbarity, but wherever they 
meet, even in Robert College. This conflict be- 
tween them is as foolish as it is unchristian. It has 
been playing into the hands of their worst enemies, 
Austria and Russia. It has been a source of con- 
stant anxiety to us in the College; but happily, and 
to the credit of our students, it has not led to any 
serious disturbance up to the present time (1907). 
The College is a perpetual peace conference be- 
tween all the nationalities and religions of this 
part of the world. 

While I am writing (1907) I learn that the two 
representatives of Bulgaria at the Hague Confer- 
ence are General Vinaroff and Judge Karandjuloff, 
both graduates of Robert College, of the classes of 
1876 and 1879. 

Theodorus Hall was opened for students in 
September, 1902, and proved to be admirably 
adapted to its purpose, and up to date in all its 
equipment. It accomplished what we had long felt 
to be essential — the entire separation of the younger 
boys in the Preparatory Department from the 
college students. Professor William Murray went 

287 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

to live in the building with the boys, and he and Mrs. 
Murray were tireless in their devotion to them. 
Mr. Hagopian had been appointed adjunct pro- 
fessor and assistant principal ; and he assisted in the 
opening of the school, but was so unfortunate as to 
break his leg on New Year's Day, and after seven 
months in the hospital came back too feeble to do 
much work for a year. Two American tutors and 
several other teachers lived in the building and 
assisted in the care of the boys. 

We commenced work on the gymnasium in the 
summer of 1903, although no progress had been 
made in securing an trade. The government never 
interfered with the work, and it was completed and 
occupied the following year. Like our other build- 
ings, it is of blue limestone. It has been a great 
boon to the College, and there is nothing of the kind 
in Constantinople to compare with it. We call it 
the Dodge Gymnasium, as it was the gift of Mr. 
William E. Dodge and his son, Cleveland H. Dodge, 
one of our trustees. 

In May, 1903, we welcomed Dr. Coe here as a 
representative of the trustees, and he brought Dr. 
Gates with him from Switzerland, where he was 
spending a year before taking up his work in the 
College. The visit was prompted by some criticisms 
which some of the new professors had made upon 
the administration of the College, and was a new 
proof of the desire of the trustees to meet their re- 
sponsibilities here with a full understanding of the 
condition and the needs of the College. Dr. Coe 
and Dr. Gates spent three weeks in Kennedy Lodge, 
had meetings with the Faculty and private confer- 



MY RESIGNATION OF THE PRESIDENCY 

ences with the professors, teachers and others 
interested in the College. For all of us it was not 
only a great pleasure to have them with us, but 
most profitable to us as individuals and as a Faculty, 
in the opportunity which it gave us to hear their 
views on many important questions and to discuss 
them with the secretary of the Board of Trustees. 
So far as I know there was no exception to the 
general satisfaction of all concerned, in the results 
of this visit. It was a happy introduction of Dr. 
Gates to the position which he was about to assume 
as president of the College. 

We received some gifts about this time which are 
worth recording — the first from a Greek gentle- 
man, Nicolaki Bey, a judge of the Court of Appeals 
in Constantinople. He gave us his house in Pera, 
which we have since sold, and the income of the 
fund goes to the aid of beneficiaries. Mr. S. M. 
Minassian also gave us a house in Pera, but we 
have not yet been able to obtain possession of it. 
Both these gentlemen had been students of Dr. 
Hamlin in the old Bebec Seminary. 

We were also indebted to Mrs. Frederick F. 
Thomson of New York for a fine pipe organ for our 
college chapel, which has added new interest to our 
public services, and to the British government, the 
British Museum and the Clarendon Press for very 
valuable additions to our library, secured through 
the influence of Professor van Millingen. 

The Commencement exercises were held two 
weeks before the close of the college year — an 
experiment which proved so satisfactory that this 
arrangement has been continued ever since. Mr. 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

Leishman, the American minister, presided, and we 
had the usual crowd with the usual distinguished 
guests. The most interesting event of the day was 
the Turkish oration, delivered by our first Turkish 
graduate, Houloussi Hussein Effendi. In form, sub- 
stance and delivery it was the best oration of the day. 
We have had many Turkish students during these 
forty years, but only this one has gone farther than 
the Sophomore class. 

The whole number of graduates was 19. There 
were 7 Bulgarians, 6 Armenians, 5 Greeks, 1 Turk. 
Of the Bulgarians 2 went to Germany to study, 2 
are in business, 1 is in the American consulate at 
Batoum, Russia, 1 in the diplomatic service. Of 
the Armenians all are in business. Of the Greeks 
4 are in business and 1 in the service of the British 
government in Macedonia. The Turk is a teacher 
in Robert College. 

March 1, 1903, I completed my seventieth year, 
and I had long before determined that it would be 
my duty at that time to resign my place as presi- 
dent to a younger and better man. I had informed 
the trustees of my intention, and happily they had 
found the right man in Dr. Gates. It was at my 
earnest solicitation that he consented to allow me to 
suggest his name to the trustees. I knew of no other 
man who could fill the place so well, and after full 
consideration the trustees came to the same con- 
clusion. At the request of Dr. Gates and the trus- 
tees I retained my position in the College as profes- 
sor and continued my work until the close of the 
following year, when I bade farewell to Constanti- 
nople, as I believed for the last time, and spent the 

290 



MY RESIGNATION OF THE PRESIDENCY 

next two years in work for the College in the United 
States. In 1906, at the earnest request of the Fac- 
ulty, I returned to the College, and have since been 
teaching my old classes here, feeling much more at 
home than I did in America. The generous con- 
tributions made by Mr. Kennedy and Mrs. William 
E. Dodge while I was in America have given new 
life to the College, transformed the appearance of 
the grounds, renovated Hamlin Hall, and given us 
the beautiful building known, at Mrs. Dodge's re- 
quest, as Washburn Hall, with two new houses for 
professors; and the number of students has risen 
to more than four hundred. 

But these recollections properly end with the close 
of the fortieth year, when I resigned ; and what my 
feelings were at that time will best appear from an 
extract from my last report to the trustees in 1903. 

"I look back upon these thirty-four years in Rob- 
ert College with the deepest gratitude to the trustees 
in New York and to my associates in Constantinople. 
The trustees have given me their unvaried and abso- 
lute confidence and support, and no man ever had 
associates more loyal and true. We have all been of 
one heart and mind as to what the College ought to 
be, what the chief end which we had in view in our 
work, and each one has been wholly consecrated to 
it. This has been true, not only of the professors, but 
also of most of the instructors and tutors, many of 
whom have done as good work as any done in the 
College. This has been the secret of our success. 
Of my personal affection for these men, here and in 
America, the living and the dead, it is impossible 
for me to write. We have worked together, with all 

291 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

our hearts, for what we believed to be the good of 
the people of this part of the world, have helped 
them in every way in our power and have sought to 
inspire them with the true Christian ideal. We have 
made no secret of our own opinions, but we treated 
theirs with respect and have done our best to enter 
into sympathy with their life and their habits of 
thought. In return our students and the various 
communities which they represent have trusted us, 
believed in us and given us their sympathy and affec- 
tion. I count this the most precious reward that 
they could give us for all the work that we have done. 
To all these dear friends in the East and to those in 
America, England and elsewhere who have given us 
their sympathy and support I owe a debt of grati- 
tude which I can never repay. 

"I hope that my wife will pardon me for men- 
tioning her in this report, but every one who has 
known the inner life of the College for the past thirty- 
four years knows that no small part of my success 
and the success of the College has been due to her 
untiring devotion to all its interests, her intimate 
knowledge of the people of different races, her power 
of winning the hearts of our students and all our 
neighbors, and, not least, her deep sympathy with 
the spiritual aims of the College." 



292 



CHAPTER XXVII 



THE WORK OF FORTY YEARS. 1863-1903 

I cannot say that I or my associates were ever 
satisfied with the work that we were doing in Robert 
College, or that at any time we ever realized our 
ideal of what it ought to be. But I feel no inclination 
now to complain of our poverty or of other circum- 
stances beyond our control which hindered our 
progress, for circumstances equally beyond our 
control have given the College an influence in the 
world far beyond anything that its founders could 
have hoped for. Those who have read the preced- 
ing chapters of this book will understand something 
both of the adverse and the favorable conditions 
under which we have worked. 

At the end of forty years we had done some- 
thing for the education of more than 2500 young 
men of many nationalities. The average length 
of time spent in the College by these students was 
about three years; 435 of them had graduated 
with honor, after from four to seven years in the 
College. Of these 144 were Armenians, 195 Bul- 
garians, 76 Greeks, 14 English and Americans, 3 
Germans, 2 Hebrews, 1 Turk. 1 

In the early history of the College these boys came 

1 In the Appendix will be found tables giving the details for 
every year of the number of students, the amount received from 
them and the amount of the current expenses of the College . 

293 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

to us as very raw material so far as school training 
was concerned, and even at the present time this is 
of a very miscellaneous character, generally not 
including any knowledge of the English language. 
We were forced to have a Preparatory Department, 
even for those who were otherwise advanced enough 
for college studies. So far as home training was 
concerned they generally came with habits of obedi- 
ence and respect for their elders which fitted them to 
submit readily to school discipline. On the whole I 
think that our students have been less difficult to 
control, less unruly than American boys, and no 
hazing traditions such as disgrace our American 
colleges have been established here, although we 
have had occasional examples of similar brutality. 

I have been more and more impressed every year 
with the feeling that boys are by nature very much 
the same everywhere — that while different environ- 
ments and varied conventionalities modify them ex- 
ternally, boys of different races are at the bottom 
essentially the same. I am often asked which of the 
nationalities in the College is the most intelligent 
and how they compare with Americans. As to 
the different nationalities it is a question to which 
there is no answer. None could be given from refer- 
ence to our records for forty years. Our best schol- 
ars have sometimes been of one nationality, some- 
times of another. In comparison with American 
students, most of our students come to us with less 
of that unconscious education which every American 
boy has acquired outside the school, but when it 
comes to his work in the College the student here is 
equal to any American. 



I 



OBERT COLLEGE 



THE WORK OF FORTY YEARS 

The question what Robert College has done for 
these students can best be answered by the extraor- 
dinary reputation which the College has gained in 
this part of the world. We are known by the charac- 
ter of our students and especially of our alumni. 
We have been sadly disappointed in a few of them, 
but the great majority have done honor to the Col- 
lege, wherever they have gone, in the universities of 
Europe as scholars and in active life as men. 

Our theory of college education is not new. In 
substance it is as old as Plato and Aristotle. Its chief 
end is the highest possible development of character. 
The principal work of the College is disciplinary. It 
also does something in the way of storing up in the 
mind of the scholar a certain amount of useful 
knowledge, but much of this is soon forgotten and 
the greater part of the knowledge which we use in 
practical life is not learned in college, not from the 
teachers at any rate. The greatest scholars are often 
the most unpractical and helpless of men. 

The most important work of the College is to 
train and develop the physical, intellectual and 
moral powers of the student. These powers exist in 
him. They are the gift of God. The work of the 
teacher is to draw them out, to cultivate them, to 
bring them into harmony, to develop them sym- 
metrically so that the lower shall be under the higher, 
so that the will shall habitually choose the higher 
rather than the lower motive. It is a well-known 
fact that most of our actions are determined by in- 
stinct or by habit. Youth is the time when instincts 
may be modified or brought under control and when 
habits are formed which generally go with us 

295 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

through life. When we say, then, that education is 
disciplinary and designed to develop and mould the 
character, we have in view the formation of those 
habits which will determine the actions of after life. 
This discipline may be directed specially to the 
physical powers, as where athletics stand first in the 
eyes of the student. It may be and often is confined 
to the intellectual faculties, to forming habits of 
study, of investigation, of reasoning, which will de- 
velop mental powers. Neither of these things should 
be neglected. Habits which will secure good health, 
with strong minds, capable of comprehending and 
mastering the problems of life, are precious acquire- 
ments. But when we speak of character we mean 
something more than these things and something 
far more important. We are thinking of the affec- 
tions and the will. These dominate the life, con- 
stitute the character and fix the destiny of the man. 
The discipline of these powers, the training of the 
will, the formation of habits which will bring the life 
into harmony with the will of God, this is the highest 
and best work of the College. Such is our theory, 
and we have done our best to live up to it. We have 
been so far successful that our students are recog- 
nized everywhere as representing a different type 
of manhood from that commonly seen in the East, 
and some of our alumni are striking and illustrious 
examples of this type. This is the real work of the 
College, and by this we are to be judged; but uncon- 
sciously and incidentally the College has exerted an 
influence in this part of the world and in other lands 
which is worthy of notice. 

It has revolutionized the policy of missionary 

296 



THE WORK OF FORTY YEARS 

societies in America in regard to education and led 
to the establishment of scores of similar institutions 
in different parts of the world. In Turkey alone 
there are now six American colleges and many more 
high schools. It has led to the founding of a large 
number of government and national schools in 
Turkey. This development of education was the 
direct result of what it was believed that Robert Col- 
lege had done for Bulgaria, and the progress made 
has been marvelous. These government schools 
are not what we might wish them to be, for the 
moral training is wanting, and the mental discipline 
is unsatisfactory; but they have their value in the 
enlightenment of the people. The schools of the 
Christian nationalities have felt the influence of the 
moral and religious training in Robert College and 
have greatly improved in this respect. This view of 
education has been much discussed in the kingdom 
of Greece during the past few years, its importance 
recognized and Robert College held up as a model. 
The Greek newspapers have been full of eulogies on 
our principles and our work. In Austrian Croatia 
and even in Russia there have been evidences of our 
influence. The fact that the heads of the Oriental 
churches in Turkey have long been warm friends of 
Robert College is an evidence that we have had an 
influence with them in removing their prejudices 
and leading them to realize the importance of a 
spiritual training for their young men. 

We have also had some influence, not so much as 
I could wish, in bringing about a less hostile state of 
feeling between the different races in the East. At 
least they meet together on equal terms in the College 

297 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

and develop a certain amount of mutual respect, 
in some cases of warm personal friendship. They 
learn that it is possible to work together for a com- 
mon end, and they find a common bond of sympathy 
in their relations to us. We have had some remark- 
able illustrations of sacrifices made by students of 
one race to help those of another. 

We have certainly had great success in winning 
the confidence of our Mohammedan neighbors, re- 
moving their prejudices, securing their respect and 
friendship and giving them new conceptions of Chris- 
tianity, as well as of America. 

The Germans think that this and the other Amer- 
ican colleges in Turkey have a great influence in 
directing the commerce of the country to America 
and England. There is no doubt some truth in this. 
The trade of Turkey with America has greatly in- 
creased of late years, and the spread of the English 
language is an advantage both to England and 
America, but we have never presented this as one of 
our claims to support. 

The College is best known in Europe for the in- 
fluence that it had in building up a free state in the 
Balkan Peninsula. Fifty years ago, except to a few 
students of history, the Bulgarians were a forgotten 
race in America and western Europe. We did not 
. exactly discover them, but we played an important 
part in making them known to the Western world 
at a time when they most needed help. Years be- 
fore this they had discovered us, and through the 
young men who studied in the College they had come 
to have faith in our wisdom and goodwill. The 
most important thing that we ever did for them was 

298 



THE WORK OF FORTY YEARS 

the educating of their young men to become leaders 
of their people at a time when there were very few 
Bulgarians who knew anything of civil government in 
a free state. 

This was our legitimate work and naturally and 
inevitably led to our doing what we could for them 
after they left the College, to give them the advice 
which they sought in their new work, and to de- 
fend their interests where we had influence in 
Europe. That, in this way, we had an important 
part in the building up of this new state is a fact 
known to all the world and best of all by the Bul- 
garians themselves, who have never failed to recog- 
nize their obligation to the College and to manifest 
their affection for us as individuals. 

We have done what we could for the other na- 
tionalities of the College, and they understand that 
we take a deep interest in everything which con- 
cerns their prosperity and progress. They have not 
had the opportunity to distinguish themselves in 
statecraft, but they have won honor and success in 
other fields of labor, both in the East and in other 
parts of the world. We have had relatively few 
Turkish students, only one who has graduated, as 
it has been the policy of the Sultan to forbid Turk- 
ish students attending any but government schools. 
Notwithstanding this prohibition, we now have 
(1907) more than twenty Turks in the College, and 
its reputation among enlightened Turks is quite as 
high as with other nationalities. 

The burden of the work during these forty years 
was to make the College worthy of its reputation 
and to meet the ever increasing demand for a higher 

299 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

education. As I have explained in the earlier chap- 
ters of this book, the College, at the outset, was a 
very primitive institution, better than any other in 
the Turkish Empire, but lacking in most of the ap- 
pliances which a college is supposed to possess. It 
was a long step in advance when we moved into 
Hamlin Hall in 1871, but many years passed after 
that before we were able to improve our material 
conditions to any extent. We devoted these years 
to what is really more important than buildings or 
apparatus, to the inner development of the College, 
to the development of our Faculty and staff of 
teachers, and the adaptation of our course of in- 
struction to our environment. Such men as Dr. 
Long and Professor van Millingen were worth 
more than new buildings. But the time came when 
these also were essential to our work and to our 
reputation. We had already been forced after Mr. 
Robert's death to seek for new friends in America 
to enable us to meet our current expenses. In the 
two years which I spent in America on this errand, in 
1880-1882, such friends were found; and in 1889- 
1891 we had to appeal to them again, or to find others 
who would lend a hand to save the College. It was 
twenty years after the erection of Hamlin Hall be- 
fore we were able to put up the Albert Long Hall, at 
the same time that Mr. Kennedy erected Kennedy 
Lodge for the president's house. We made other 
improvements at this time which made our grounds 
and buildings attractive. It was a turning point in 
our history so far as our influence here was con- 
cerned. A still more important event came five years 
later in the reorganization of the Board of Trustees 

300 



THE WORK OF FORTY YEARS 

in New York, which may be regarded as the begin- 
ning of a new era. After Mr. Robert's death the 
responsibility for the management, the support, 
the life of the College, rested upon the Faculty here. 
It was a burden too heavy for us to bear and not a 
desirable arrangement for the College; but we put 
our whole lives into the work and have no reason to 
be ashamed of the result. I am proud of my asso- 
ciates here, both Americans, natives and Europeans, 
whenever I think of it — of their self-sacrifice, their 
tireless devotion to all the interests of the students 
and the general interests of the College, their wis- 
dom and their faith. To work with such men in 
such a cause was a life worth living. 

The reorganization of the Board of Trustees has 
given new life to the College and been followed by 
the erection of Theodorus Hall for the Preparatory 
Department, the Dodge Gymnasium, Washburn 
Hall, the renovation of Hamlin Hall, the erection of 
five professors' houses, and many other important 
improvements. Equally important has been the 
inner development of the College, made possible by 
the appointment of five new professors, additional 
instructors, with new appliances and a revision of 
the course of study. All this work was not com- 
pleted in 1903, the close of the period of forty years, 
but it was all initiated in that period and has been 
most happily carried to completion under the wise 
administration of my successor, Dr. Gates, and the 
Board of Trustees organized in 1895. 

The demand for progress and development will 
be as inevitable in the future as in the past, and this 
will mean more money and more strong, conse- 

301 



FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 

crated men to devote their lives to the work. No 
doubt there will be new trials and difficulties to en- 
counter as well. But Robert College has been a 
work of faith from the beginning. It is now and 
it will be in the future. The motto on our college 
seal is 

PER DEUM OMNIA 



302 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX 



A. Number and Nationality of Students and Graduates 
Each Year 



Registered Students 


Graduates 






■ 


to 

a 
.2 








3 


00 

a 

•S 










1 

a 




8 


(9 


i2 


S 


3 


§ 


C 

e3 












a 


M 


8 


s 


<3 


a 


JSP 


$ 


1 




« 


o 
pq 


% 


3 

pq 


o 


8 


6 


4 


3 
« 




o 


1 


on 


10 


U 


A 
U 


o 


lo 


u 










% 


OQ 
XO 


OK 


1 


1 


A. 
4 


OO 


A 










5 


ol 


A A 

44 


OA 


y 


o 


lo 


u 










A 

4 


Oft 

yo 


/O 


1 o 

iy 


1 Q 

13 


t Q 

lo 


QO 

oy 












o 


1 no 
lUx 


/y 


1 A. 

14 


id 


QQ 
OO 


Q/l 

34 


o 


i 


1 




u 


o 
O 


yo 


to 


1 1 

11 


A 1 

41 


17 


OQ 
XO 


/> 
o 


U 


O 


n. 


1 


7 


o*? 

yo 


DO 


QK 
OO 


QQ 
OO 


OO 


o/; 

ZD 


1 


1 


U 


U 


A. 


Q 

o 


1 /I Q 

14o 


OQ 

yo 


Qt 

OO 


A 1 

41 


QQ 
OO 


o4 


5 


n. 


O 


u 


ft 


9 


218 


164 


80 


40 


34 


64 


8 





6 


1 


1 


10 


257 


189 


98 


38 


48 


73 


1 





1 








11 


237 


172 


87 


43 


43 


64 


5 





5 








12 


208 


163 


55 


45 


48 


60 


11 


3 


7 


1 





13 


191 


152 


54 


33 


39 


65 


15 


7 


7 


1 





14 


135 


98 


43 


42 


14 


38 


14 


6 


5 


2 


1 


15 


128 


93 


35 


50 


11 


32 


8 


3 


3 


1 


1 


16 


162 


111 


50 


54 


32 


26 


11 


5 


6 








17 


209 


149 


74 


77 


27 


31 


7 


3 


4 








18 


232 


158 


85 


89 


28 


23 


12 


2 


9 


1 





19 


259 


173 


94 


105 


24 


37 


9 


4 


5 








20 


243 


165 


83 


110 


26 


24 


10 


4 


5 


1 





21 


215 


142 


82 


91 


29 


13 


22 


7 


14 


1 





22 


173 


115 


63 


71 


28 


11 


15 


4 


9 


1 


1 


23 


182 


120 


64 


71 


37 


10 


20 


8 


12 








24 


182 


130 


53 


70 


36 


23 


26 


10 


13 


3 






305 



APPENDIX 



Number and Nationality of Students and Graduates — 

Continued 



Registered Students 





T3 
u 




OS 

a 

03 


00 

.5 






0B 


CO 

I 


72 

# e3 








to 




1 
09 


'C 


tn 


2 


S3 
3 


'3 

9) 


'C 


05 


2 




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cS 

o 


a 


jm 
"3 


Q) 
<o 


tS 

A 


T3 
S3 


a 


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"3 




o 
-a 


>* 


M 


ffl 


u 

< 


m 


u 

o 


o 


O 


< 







O 


25 


170 


113 


55 


60 


S3 


22 


28 


12 


15 


1 





26 


158 


104 


43 


52 


33 


30 


11 


3 


3 


4 


1 


27 


162 


104 


47 


45 


41 


31 


8 


4 


3 


1 


o 


28 


159 


104 


59 


41 


39 


20 


5 


4 


1 








29 


194 


130 


70 


52 


47 


25 


8 


4 


3 


1 





30 


203 


143 


73 


60 


46 


24 


13 


3 


6 


3 


1 


31 


200 


123 


68 


44 


65 


23 


21 


8 


6 


4 


3 


32 


205 


116 


63 


36 


80 


26 


15 


5 


6 


3 


1 


33 


221 


132 


69 


37 


92 


23 


6 


2 


3 


1 





34 


200 


130 


61 


38 


77 


24 


14 


4 


5 


4 


1 


35 


250 


145 


87 


49 


88 


26 


14 


2 


6 


4 


2 


36 


292 


173 


105 


45 


108 


34 


13 


4 


3 


5 


1 


37 


297 


176 


108 


39 


112 


38 


18 


8 


2 


5 


3 


38 


311 


182 


108 


34 


127 


42 


11 


1 


4 


5 


1 


39 


308 


181 


98 


29 


131 


61 


13 


6 


2 


4 


1 


40 


318 


190 


101 


28 


145 


45 


19 


6 


7 


5 


1 


41 


320 


188 


94 


23 


168 


35 


17 


6 


1 


9 


1 


42 


342 


222 


97 


34 


171 


40 


10 


5 


1 


4 





43 


373 


257 


88 


37 


195 


53 


12 


6 





6 






Graduates 



306 



APPENDIX 



B. Receipts from Students, and Expenses at Constanti- 
nople, Each Year 



Year 


Received from Students 


Expenses at Constantinople 
Not including Building, Improve- 
ments, or Apparatus 


1 


$2,578 


$5,181 


2 


3,845 


5,630 


3 


5,808 


6,107 


4 

l 5 


7,858 


9,111 


*6 






7 


10,300 


11,052 


8 


14,869 


13,939 


9 


26,906 


22,308 


10 


31,548 


27,874 


11 


26,364 


28,380 


12 


24,697 


26,778 


13 


20,014 


24,648 


14 


14,780 


20,490 


15 


14,511 


18,981 


16 


16,746 


21,890 


17 


23,720 


25,647 


18 


25,280 


28,350 


19 


29,493 


32,371 


20 


29,020 


34,185 


21 


24,535 


32,792 


22 


1Q 14.4. 




23 


17,384 


25,694 


24 


20,552 


28,164 


25 


18,889 


29,488 


26 


16,227 


28,987 


27 


15,891 


26,004 


28 


16,033 


26,998 


29 


20,227 


30,088 


30 


22,426 


30,728 



1 The accounts of these two years cannot be found in Constantinople. 

307 



APPENDIX 



Receipts and Expenses — Continued 



Year 


Received from Students 


Expbnses at Constantinople 
Not including Building, Improve- 
ments, or Apparatus 


31 


$ 19,919 


$36,169 


32 


at\ OAK 

20,845 


31,442 


00 
oo 


r% a now 

24,987 


36,753 


Ct A 


24,070 


35,640 


ct fir 

35 


28,300 


36,682 


36 


33,117 


40,731 


37 


32,577 


42,539 


38 


34,636 


43,670 


39 


34,295 


48,302 


40 


37,028 


59,006 


41 


37,434 


59,457 


42 


45,320 


60,031 


43 


50,782 


68,189 



C. The Faculty of the College, Forty-fifth Year, 
1907-1908 

President, Caleb Frank Gates, D. D., LL. D., appointed 1903. 

George Washburn, D. D., LL. D., appointed 1869. 

Hagopos H. Djedjizian, A. M., appointed 1872. 

Stephan Panaretoff, A. M., appointed 1877. 

Alexander van Millingen, D. D., appointed 1878. 

Charles Anderson, D. D., appointed 1888. 

Louisos Eliou, Ph. D., appointed 1890. 

William T. Ormiston, A. M., appointed 1892. 

Ion E. Dwyer, A. M,, appointed 1904. 

Bertram V. Post, M. D., appointed 1904. 

George L. Manning, Ph. D., appointed 1905. 

Abraham D. Hagopian, A. M., appointed 1905. 

George H. Huntington, A. M., appointed 1907. 
(One vacancy.) 

308 



APPENDIX 



PERMANENT INSTRUCTORS 

Peter Voicoff, A. M., appointed 1883 

Constas Constantinou, Ph. D., appointed 1895. 

Henri Auguste Reymond, appointed 1896. 

Tevfik Fikret Bey, appointed 1900. 

Stavros S. Emmanuel, A. M., appointed 1893. 

Caspar H. Tuysizian, A. B., appointed 1897. 

Friedrich W. Kunick, appointed 1902. 
(14 other teachers.) 

D. Former Members op the Faculty 

* Cyrus Hamlin, D. D., LL. D., President, 1863-1877. 

* George A. Perkins, A. M., 1863-1865. 

* Henry A. Schauffler, D. D., 1863-1865. 
John A. Paine, Ph. D., 1867-1869. 

* Albert L. Long, D. D., 1872-1901. 
Edwin A. Grosvenor, LL. D., 1872-1890. 
George S. Murray, A. M., 1901-1904. 

* Charles W. Ottley, M. D., 1901-1904. 
A. H. Lybyer, A. M., Ph. D., 1900-1907. 
William S. Murray, M. S., 1901-1907. 



E. Former American Tutors 

Harry H. Barnum, University of Chicago. 

Ward M. Beckwith, M. D., Westmoreland, N. Y. 

Philip M. Brown, U. S. Embassy, Constantinople. 

Alvey M. Carter, Art Museum, Boston, Mass. 

Rev. W. V. W. Davis, D. D., Pittsfield, Mass. 

Prof. Frank L. Duley, Mount Hermon, Mass. 

Charles H. Durfee, Deceased. 

George E. Eddy, Rochester, N. Y. 

Handford W. Edson, Indianapolis, Ind. 

Judge W. T. Forbes, Worcester, Mass. 

Francis E. Garlough, Boston, Mass. 

* Deceased. 
309 



APPENDIX 



Miles T. Hand, 
John H. Haynes, 
Frederick M. Herrick, Esq., 
Winthrop H. Hopkins, 
Prof. Arthur S. Hoyt, D. D., 

Rev. Charles S. Hoyt, D. D., 

Rev. George E. Ladd, 

Rev. Clement C. Martin, 

Rev. Eneas McLean, 

Rev. D. S. Muzzy, 

Prof. Charles Nash, D. D., 

Rev. Luther A. Ostrander, D. D., 

Rev. Leroy F. Ostrander, 

Prof. George E. Pollock, 

Lansing L. Porter, 

Rev. Lewis T. Reed, 

Rev. Orville Reed, 

Rev. C. S. Richardson, D. D., 

Rev. Charles T. Riggs, 

Rev. James Rodger, 

Albert H. Rodgers, M. D., 

Rev. C. A. Savage, D. D., 

Rev. H. K. Sanborne, 

Rev. Carl W. Scovel, 

Prof. Robert L. Taylor, 

Judge C. S. Truax, 

President E. M. Vittum, D. D., 

Paul T. B. Ward, 

Ernest B. Watson, 

Rev. Lewis B. Webber, 

Rev. Hezekiah Webster, 

Prof. E. W. Wetmore, 

Prof. S. D. Wilcox, 

Prof. L. D. Woodbridge, M. D., 

George G. Wright, 

Rev. George B. Young, 



Honesdale, Penn. 
North Adams, Mass. 
New York, N. Y. 
Auburn, N. Y. 

Auburn Theological Seminary, 

New York. 
Deceased. 
Red Oaks, Iowa. 
Fostoria, Ohio. 
Deceased. 
Yonkers, N. Y. 
Oakland, Cal. 
Lyons, N. Y. 
Samokov, Bulgaria. 
Deceased. 
Evanston, 111. 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Montclair, N. J. 
Little Falls, N. Y. 
Constantinople. 
Farmington, Minn. 
Corning, N. Y. 
Deceased. 
Oakland, Cal. 
Newark, N. J. 
Hanover, N. H. 
Deceased. 

Fargo College, N. D. 
Boston, Mass. 
Hanover, N. H. 
Brockport, N. Y. 
Deceased. 
Albany, N. Y. 
Deceased. 
Deceased. 
Boston, Mass. 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 



SIO 



APPENDIX 



F. Mr. Robert's Requirements for Tutors 
i 

The candidate should be a man twenty-two to twenty-six years of 
age, of fervent, symmetrical piety, combined with a missionary spirit, 
a willingness to do hard work, the ability to work harmoniously with 
others and one who is not unyielding, stiff, or one who would be con- 
scientiously obstinate, one who is ready to do anything which the good 
of the College requires, even to teaching the alphabet, though he may 
be versed in the most abstruse parts of the Calculus ; in short a man 
who wants to live a Christian life and do a Christian teacher's work, 
desiring to do good to the souls of his pupils as well as to improve 
their understanding. 

ii 

A good mind in a sound body, with a large share of common sense, 
a firm but mild temper, a warm heart readily sympathizing with those 
under him, keenness of perception and a cool, unbiased judgment, 
governing himself well and able to govern others so far as practical 
by love rather than force. Possessing gentlemanly habits and feelings. 

in 

A man of great breadth of mind, who can take broad and proper 
views of education, not wedded to any system, comprehending the 
purpose of education, knowing a great deal more than he is expected 
to teach. 

IV 

A thorough and systematic scholar, not a man who has barely "got 
through " college or who has been little above the average of his class, 
but one who has been among the very first, a real enthusiast in learn- 
ing, never satisfied with present attainments but always pressing on 
to farther acquisitions. 

v 

Apt to teach, with ability and tact to impart what he knows. An 
enthusiast in his work, determined to make better scholars than any 
other teacher has ever done and inspiring them with a love of learn- 
ing. Not a man in feeble health who wishes to "lay off." 

311 



APPENDIX 



VI 

A man who can impress himself on his pupils, who can influence 
them for good, whose wishes as well as his words shall be law to them, 
one who by his own habits of punctuality, promptness, system and 
neatness shall teach as well by his exemplary practice in all these re- 
spects as by precept. 

VII 

A mercenary person, or one who would go to make money, is not 
wanted. 

G. Summary op the Report of the Treasurer of Robert 
College for 1909 

endowment funds invested in new york 



General Endowment Fund . 
C. R. Robert Endowment Fund 
Scholarship Fund 
Lois Newton Fund 
Museum Fund 



The College has no indebtedness. 



. $243,402.22 
134,080.18 
8,000.00 
11,302.50 
5,997.50 
$402,782.40 
. 392,629.03 
$795,411.43 



Real estate and other property in Constantinople 



312 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Aali Pasha, 11, 45. 
Abd-ul-Aziz, Sultan, 10, 105. 
Abd-ul-Hamid, Sultan, 106, 115, 130, 

153, 170, 246. 
Abd-ul-Medjid, Sultan, 10. 
Achmet Vefik Pasha, 7, 11, 55, 74, 

118, 130. 

Alexander, Prince of Bulgaria, 148, 
183, 189. 

Alumni, 207, 263, 293. 

Anderson, Professor Charles, 40, 199. 

Angell, James B., American Minis- 
ter, 256. 

Armenians, 70, 76, 152, 200, 219, 237, 
245. 

Arnold, Matthew, 144. 
Assassination of Presidents, 278. 
Athletics, 259. 

Bancroft, George, 74. 
Bayard, Thomas F., 95. 
Bebec, 14. 

Beneficiaries, 22, 216, 241. 

Blaine, James G., 95, 211. 

Booth, William A., 9. 

Brooks, Rev. Arthur, 194. 

Bryce, James, 168. 

Buildings, 27, 47, 68, 216, 224. 

Bulgaria, 39, 52, 69, 89, 103, 122, 126, 

147, 160, 173, 218. 
Bulwer, Sir Henry, 11. 

Censorship, 218. 
Cholera, 18, 53, 231. 
Civil War in United States, 9, 20. 
Coe, David B., 6, 112. 
Oe, Edward B., 235, 288. 
College for Girls, 30. 
Commencements, 26, 40, 48, 62, 98, 
125, 157, 225, 243, 289. 



Conference of Constantinople, 116. 
Conflagrations, 19, 42. 
Constitution, Turkish, 117. 
Cox, Samuel S., 187. 
Cricket match, 73. 
Currie, Sir Philip, 220. 

Development, 64, 67, 96, 141, 254, 

265, 282. 
Dimitroff, Peter, 63, 151, 181, 268. 
Discipline, 25, 36, 46, 57, 70. 
Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield), 109, 

145. 

Djedjizian, Professor Hagopos, 26, 
66. 

Dodge, Cleveland H., 266, 288. 
Dodge, Mr. and Mrs. William E., 

241, 288, 291. 
Dufferin, Lord, 164, 171. 
Dwight, James and William, 3, 4. 
Dwyer, Professor John E., 308. 

Earthquakes, 135, 231. 
Eastern Roumelia, 148, 152, 180. 
Egypt, 160, 169, 250. 
Elective Courses, 97, 223. 
Eliou, Professor Louisos, 125, 178. 
Elliott, Sir Henry, 89, 104, 108, 
117. 

Endowment, 29, 59, 135, 164, 208. 
England, 11, 89, 116, 132, 200, 220. 

Farragut, Admiral, 12. 
Ferdinand, King of Bulgaria, 192, 
241. 

Finances, 43, 61, 139, 231, 307, 
312. 

Founder's Day, 197. 
Forster, Sir William E., 143. 
Frances, Sir Philip, 28. 



INDEX 



Gates, President Caleb Frank, 280, 

288, 290. 
Geological Survey, 61. 
Germany, 257. 

Gladstone, 110, 147, 153, 162. 

Grant, General, 131. 

Granville, Lord, 168. 

Greece, 250. 

Greek Patriarch, 272. 

Greeks, 69, 124, 155, 236, 240. 

Griscom, Lloyd C, 269. 

Grosvenor, Professor Edwin A., 65, 

124, 204. 
Gymnasium, 288. 

Hamlin, President Cyrus, 6, 8, 14, 
27, 28, 51, 59, 65, 135, 267. 

Hamlin Hall, 28, 72, 174, 261. 

Hanson, Charles S., 159. 

Haritune, Steward, 154. 

Hart, Miss Meredith, 229. 

Harvard University, 8, 14. 

Hay, John, 95. 

Herbert, Sir Michael, 249. 

Huntington, Professor George H., 
308. 

Kennedy, John Stewart, 195, 235, 

265, 291. 
Kurds, 202. 

Land, 7, 54, 94. 

Layard, Sir Henry, 121, 130, 153. 
Leishman, John G. A., 269, 286. 
Library, 14. 
Local Board, 16. 

Long, Professor Albert L., 65, 100, 

122, 135, 147, 158, 179, 275. 
Lookout Mountain, 21. 
Lybyer, Professor Albert L., 270. 
Lycee of Galata Serai, 24. 
Lyons, Lord, 11, 33. 

Macedonia, 276. 

Manning, Professor George L., 280. 
Massacres, 103, 238, 245. 
Maynard, Horace, 95, 109, 149. 



Midhat Pasha, 111, 117. 
Millingen, Professor Alexander van, 

140, 158, 228. 
Missionary policy, 1, 7. 
Morgan, George D., 12, 34. 
Morris, E. Joy, 28, 33. 
Murray, Professor George S., 280. 
Murray, Professor William S., 280. 
Music, 228. 

Nationalities, 69, 91, 305. 
Naval officers and vessels, 112, 121, 
149, 203. 

O'Conor, Sir Nicholas, 257. 
Organization of classes, 43. 
Ormiston, Professor William T., 180, 

205, 223. 
Ottley, Dr. Charles W., 280. 

Panaretoff, Professor Stephen, 49, 89, 

110, 156, 196. 
Parliament, First Turkish, 118, 130. 
Parliament of Religions, 222, 229. 
Pears, Sir Edwin, 104, 182. 
Perkins, Professor George A., 14, 18. 
Political situation, 100, 226. 
Post, Professor Bertram V., 308. 
Potter, Bishop, 241. 

Ramsay, Sir William, 263. 
Religious principles, 16, 76, 85, 151, 
295. 

Revolutions, 104, 106, 183, 190. 
Robert, Christopher R., 1, 5, 10, 27, 

29, 43, 91, 137. 
Robert College, 7, 9, 14, 15, 17, 47, 

93, 107, 124, 168, 247, 293. 
Roumeli Hissar, 7. 
Rosebery, -Lord, 186, 261. 
Roosevelt, President, 284. 
Russia, 10, 52, 89, 101, 149, 183, 240. 
Russo-Turkish War, 120, 127. 

Sabbath services, 16. 
Salisbury, Lord, 117, 239. 
Schauffler, Professor Henry A., 14, 18. 



316 



INDEX 



Schools in Turkey, 3. 
Schuyler, Eugene, 109, 147. 
Seward, William H., 12, 47. 
Sheridan, General, 45. 
Sherman, General, 57. 
Skobeleff, General, 128, 132. 
Spanish War, 257. 
Stambuloff, 52, 191. 
Stoiloff, Constantine, 49, 151, 272. 
Straus, Oscar S., 194, 257. 
Syrian Protestant College, 24, 43. 

Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, 
172. 

Terrell, Alexander W., 226. 
Theodorus Hall, 255, 271, 282. 
Treaty of Berlin, 133. 
Treaty of San Stefano, 131. 



Trustees, 9, 139, 235, 264. 
Turkey, 100, 142, 160, 193, 227, 232, 
285. 

Turkish neighbors, 71, 120, 134. 
Turkish opinions of the College, 95, 
227. 

Tutors, 19, 309, 311. 

Wallace, General Lew, 169. 
Washburn, George, 33, 35, 50, 59, 
290. 

Washburn, Mrs. George, 73, 267, 
292. 

Washburn Hall, 291. 
White, Sir William, 186, 220. 

Young Men's Christian Association, 
221. 



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